Wife of Lopt
by TudorRose1455
Summary: Loki (Lopt) and his wife Sigyn are reunited after she was forgotten on Earth with their children after the Icelandic Conversion in 1,000 AD. This story attempts to weave together the traditional Norse myths and the Marvel universe as they face Loki's witch-wife Angrboda and her children. Please, feel free to look about and leave a comment (for better or worse). Cheers!
1. Prologue and Introduction

Asgard, 1,000 C.E.

Confusion filled the air as people cried and called for loved ones, ensuring no one was left behind. When the Icelandic council of the Grey Goose had met, it was not expected that they should decide in favour of the new religion of the Continent. And when the army had come against the Æsir, the hastiest of evacuations had been in order.

Odin pulled Heimdall's sword from the machine, and the Bifröst closed with a gasp and a shudder. A lone spear flew past him and splintered against the shining wall of the Observatory. He handed the sword to Heimdall. "No one comes or goes without my permission."

"Odin!"

Heimdall bowed his head. "As you wish, All-Father."

Odin turned to Loki, once friend and blood-brother, now the greatest of enemies, pushing through the crowds.

Loki stumbled over the hobble still about his ankles. He looked old, and his once blond hair had faded greatly. His hands were bound, and he had only barely slipped the muzzle from his mouth. "All-Father, my wife! My sons! They are nowhere to be found! You must reopen the Bifröst. Please, I beg of you."

"To open it again would be death," said Odin hoarsely. "You saw the army coming. It was at great risk to our safety that we released you from your bonds beneath the Serpent. You have Thor and Frigg to thank for such mercies."

He pushed past Heimdall, but Loki caught the hem of his cloak. Odin straightened. "Loki, no one leaves. We cannot afford to send the army for a woman and two children. We know the chaos that comes of your offspring."

"Then let me go. Alone." Loki fell to his knees and held up his hands. "Please."

Odin refused to look to him. "Your crimes against those of the realms would cause yet one more death: yours. And I cannot afford that."

The All-Father, the Lord of the Slain, worked his way through the many people, helping the lost return to their families.

Loki turned to Heimdall, but the great man shook his head. The son of Laufey let loose a great cry and vanished from his bonds and from the room.

Heimdall said, "All-Father."

Odin turned to where Loki had been. "He will not wander far, and we have more pressing concerns. His chaos will be confined to one factor now."

Loki re-emerged in the dark and cool passage outside the chambers he had shared long ago with Sigyn and their sons, Narvi and Vali. He sank against the wall and clutched his head, roaring with rage.

The door flew open. He stepped on a wooden block with his bare foot and shouted a curse at it. It burned and curled, until it was a pile of ash. He marched through it and surveyed the scene.

A blanket hung nearly finished on Sigyn's loom. It was to have been a blanket for Vali, riddled and charmed to frighten away the monsters of the night. The boys' tomes filled with ancient stories were neatly stacked in a corner, as were their toys. They had left out the fortress built with their blocks. Cousins to the one he had just destroyed in his anger lay scattered about the room. Sigyn had scolded them terribly for it, only for him to make them promise to clean it up as soon as they returned. Only, everything changed before they could return. The Midgard was an evil place for those who did not belong there. Even now, the air was filled with tension as the items waited for the return of their mistress and young masters.

The tidiness was more than he could handle, and he let loose a great wave of rage which threw the room into chaos. "Let me never be remembered as anything but the Sly One," he shouted, tearing at the weaving on the wall.

The charms dissipated into the air and up into his nostrils, calming him, just as his fair wife's touch once simultaneously calmed and excited him. He held the blanket to his nose, breathing deeply, and imagining her scent still lingered.

A handful of words echoed throughout the room. A curse, a blessing, whichever it was, he caught it and held tightly. He bolted the door, and lit the fire. Once it was hot and bright, he threw the words into a pot.

In his scrying bowl, he could see Odin meeting with Heimdall and Thor.

"I hope you are proud of yourself, All-Father, you who are Ygg, the Destroyer." Loki gnashed his teeth, and waved his hand over the pot. The liquid came to a bubble. A tightening in his belly gnawed at him. One of Sigyn's requirements in their marriage contract had been his renunciation of his magic. But this once, this desperation, it consumed him. And it was for a good deed, an act that could not be resented.

He looked through the window. The last of the Bifröst's path to the Midgard was fading quickly. If such a spell was to be effective, then it needed to be done before the essence faded completely for the last time.

He went into the bedrooms. There, he found hairs on the pillows: Sigyn, Narvi, Vali. He dropped the hairs into the mixture: Vali, Narvi. He hesitated before throwing in Sigyn's, a band tightening about his chest.

"I love you," he whispered. "I always will."

The long, golden hair disappeared, eaten by the mixture.

"Since I cannot succeed in physically saving you, let this one last deed be sufficient." He closed his eyes, and chanted, "_Volupsa ond Voland,...Volupsa ond Voland,..._Seeress and Smith, hear me, those who have gone before...Let their flesh never age, let their spirits never falter. Let neither the heat of summer, nor the cold of winter destroy them. Let their youth exist independent of Idunn's apples, let the youth protect them, and keep them strong. Let this power given to me protect them even from such a great distance—Let my youth be exchanged for theirs!"

He plunged his hands into the boiling mixture and screamed. The curse burned his body, changing it to a strange blue. His heart felt as if it would break. He could feel the strength draining from his body, through his fingertips and into the darkness.

Ever so faintly, the sounds of screams and laboured breathing broke through the bonds of space and time. And he saw a glimmer of hope, quickly overthrown by the cackling form of Angrboda.

Someone was shaking him. It broke the darkness, and Loki coughed violently, rolling onto his side. He looked up.

Thor knelt beside him, his eyes large with rage. "What have you done?"

Shaking violently, Loki pulled himself onto his hands and knees. He felt old. Then he looked to his hands and gasped. They were ancient. He felt his face and realized the wrinkles there. "Did it work?"

Thor's mighty hands clenched. "You would return to your sorceries so soon? What will they do?"

Loki attempted to stand. "I was protecting my family! Is there anything you would not do for Sif? Magni? Modi?"

Thor dropped into a stance. "Are you seeking good or merely attention? If Father learns of this, he will return you to the dungeons."

"Then let him. Let me finish this, and I will never again do any deed worthy of mention."

Thor flared his nostrils. "Finish this quickly ere Father learns of it. I will not aid you in your sorceries."

"Perhaps you would like to lose one of your sons to experience my pain?"

Mjolnir was in Thor's hand quickly. "Do not punish me. You killed Baldr by Hod's hand, and refused to mourn for him that your hateful daughter Hela would return him from her black halls. In your hatred, you sent three to Hel with the murder of one. You have left them with no choice."

"Should my wife and sons suffer for my sins?" Loki snarled.

"You should have thought about such before you began this journey into darkness and chaos," said Thor. His eyes softened. "They will be properly mourned."

The door closed behind Thor with a heavy thud.

Loki looked about the ruins of the room. The pot had shattered, and any last bit of the curse had trickled into the fire to be burned. The room stank, and there was ash everywhere.

He looked down at his hands. They were returning to a youthful pink. "Let all laws be agreed, Loki Laufeyson is no more. Let this universe begin again."

When he looked at himself in the mirror, it was to see a young man. His hair was dark as night, and his features were sharply pointed. His eyes were both green and blue, and his skin pale, so very pale.

He chuckled under his breath. "Let this new age be a chance for all to begin again. The gods of the Norse will return and overthrow this new Saviour of the Continent."

Boston, _Sometime in the relative present..._

The air conditioning kicked on yet again, attempting to combat the humidity of the mid-September day in Boston, Massachusetts. The lecture hall was nearly half-full, students more interested in the content of their smart phones than the lecture about to begin.

The Head of the Folklore Department tapped on the microphone. "Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for braving the heat to join us today. We have a very special guest..."

A classroom's worth of students hurried in and found seats. It was one of the special freshman seminars. Their cheeks were red, from heat, embarrassment, or both.

"...As well as having consulted on several of the History Channel's Viking and medieval documentaries. Please join me in welcoming Professor Sarah Thorson."

A striking woman in her mid- thirties stepped up to the microphone, her blonde hair pinned up in a chignon. Her cheeks were very pink, and she wore a dark green cotton dress and black pumps. "Good afternoon, everyone," she said with a slight Scandinavian accent. "Thank you for attending my lecture today. I'm sure you'd prefer to skip through the introduction and progress immediately to the interesting parts concerning the 'hot Scandinavian gods'—"

A couple of girls giggled in the front.

"—But I'm afraid I have to fill you in on some basic information concerning the history of the Æsir and their contemporaries before we begin."

The screen turned to an engraving of a medieval scribe, hunched over his work.

"First things first," said the Professor. A wedding band sparkled on her left hand. "By show of hands, how many of you had heard of the Norse gods before the Battle of New York where the Avengers debuted? Thank you. How many of you are here hoping the government has leaked pictures of the Avengers and I have them on my slides?" She laughed. "Thank you for your honesty.

"But we're going a bit further back to a time when the Norse gods lived amongst humanity. It is arguable that the Norse gods were aliens with superior technology. But that's a lecture for a science fiction course, which I will be teaching next winter, if anyone should be so interested.

"Speaking of time, for anything involved with the Norse gods, attempting to create a perfectly linear timeline would be near impossible. It would make _Doctor Who_ have perfect linear sense. As John Lindow argues, we have the 'distant past', the 'near past', and 'the mythological present'."

Professor Thorson walked about the stage, motioning with her hands. "Respectively, these are creation, what has happened and will not be revisited, and what is happening. There is no linear order. Any attempt to create linear order will send you straight to Bedlam hospital, which probably still exists in some parallel universe. As Lindow states, 'Such inconsistencies are the nature of mythology' because the works come from a living, breathing culture where we lacked the universal access to knowledge," she grabbed the Head's smart phone from his hands, "so readily available now."

She handed the phone back to the Head with a smile. "So just because something appears to coincide directly with something else, does not mean it is. There is only three true points we may reference: Creation, Baldr's death, and the Ragnarok. Everything else floats about in a free nature."

The screen changed again to an artist's depiction of the Norse gods.

"So, the Norse pantheon. It is headed by Odin, or Oðin, who has twelve official names, and dozens more scattered throughout the texts. Odin is an extremely complicated character, and it is hotly debated whether he was actually head of the pantheon originally. Many scholars debate whether it was actually this one, Tyr, the one handed god and purveyor of justice, who headed the pantheon."

The slide changed and several people cheered.

"I see everyone recognizes Thor. He is the thunderer, although it is also believed that he was also a priest. He is the son of Odin and Jorð, the Earth, and it was argued for a while that he was a mountain. He is certainly a chthonic or earthly deity.

"Next is Loki, who—" She plugged her ears while several people screamed. "I'm sure he appreciates your enthusiasm, ladies and gentlemen. Trust me. Now, Loki, according to Snorri Sturluson, is 'pleasing, even beautiful to look at, but his nature is evil and his actions are undependable'. His wives are Sigyn, who mothers Narvi and Vali, and Angrboda, who mothers Fenruswulf Odinsbane, Jormungundr the Midgard Serpent, and Hela, Queen of the Underworld. Loki's purpose throughout the tales changes as often as the tales themselves do. In the Poetic Eddda, he is the blood-brother of Odin, meaning they are sworn to be loyal and true to each other until the end of time. He ultimately betrays Odin at the Ragnarok, the Twilight of the Gods, leading the forces of evil against the Æsir. Loki's children Fenruswulf and Jormungundr kill and are killed by Odin and Thor respectively, and Loki kills and is killed by Heimdall."

It was very quiet in the lecture hall.

Professor Thorson stood up straighter. "In the _Prose Edda_, Loki takes a less malicious role, and is the travelling companion of Thor. In the majority of texts, however, Loki's role is consistently that of a broker. He makes the deals for the Æsir, and when they want to break a deal in order to avoid paying up, he is typically threatened with death unless he finds a way to break the deal. Hence the conception of Sleipnir."

A fan art drawing of Loki looking a center-fold for horses popped up. The slide changed to a chart of the Æsir. "I will do a quick introduction for the rest of the gods and goddesses before moving on to the bulk of my lecture. We have Frigg, the wife of Odin who also was used by his brothers at one point when they thought him dead. We have Gerd, a giantess, and the wife of Frey. She's very spunky, and I enjoy her poem. We have Nanna, the wife of Tyr and mother of Forseti, who is a judge. We also have Idunn, the wife of Bragi, the first poet. She is the keeper of the apples of youth for the Æsir, just as her husband is the keeper of poetry.

"Then we have Frey and his sister Freyja, the children of Njord. All three are Vanir hostages exchanged for peace between the two groups. Now the strange thing in theory happens here. Without the Vanir, there are no fertility deities. Anyone who has taken mythology knows the importance of fertility deities. The fact that these deities are outsiders..."


	2. A Thousand Year Reunion

That night, the storm broke. It was oppressively hot and raining. Sweating furiously in his three-piece suit, Loki Laufeyson ran down a side street, panting from the exertion. A door opened, sending a beam of light into the darkness and he leapt in, rolling to a stop at the woman's feet. Her shoes were elegant, and her feet...he knew those feet. His eyes grew wide when he looked into her face.

"You!" She let the door slam shut. The police ran past noisily.

"Hello, darling. Am I late for dinner?" He chuckled uneasily, standing up slowly. His long legs nearly tangled themselves in his walking stick.

"Merely a few centuries, husband." Her ash-blonde hair was pulled back severely in a knot at the nape of her neck. "Pick yourself up like a man. It's good to know you made it back to Earth. I was wondering if you'd ever come looking for your missing wife."

"Sigyn, Sig, darling," he said, following her in to the good-sized kitchen . He caught her hands. They were still strong after all the years. He kissed her hands and held them to his face, breathing in her scent, memories rushing back to him. "They told me you had been killed when we left. I had no idea—"

He looked up in to her face and decided it would be best to be silent.

"They told you I was dead? And you never came back? It has been nearly a thousand of their years! Do you have any idea how long that is?"

"Time does not register the same for the Æsir."

Her face turned scarlet and she caught up a newspaper, beating him soundly over the head with it. He threw up his hands in defense, yet the blows continued to rain down until he threw himself at her feet and wrapped his arms about her waist. "Sig, please. I missed you so."

"After all I did for you, and everything you have done to me, this is how I am to be appeased?" She pushed him away, gently, though, and opened the back door. "Get out, or I will inform the authorities. I assume there is a rather large bounty on your head, as usual."

He leaned in close, giving her his most manipulative smile. "You would be honor bound to stir up the blood feud."

"What is honor when one's spouse possesses none?" She hissed before thrusting him into the darkness.

He landed in a mud puddle and watched as she slammed the door shut. He heard a car stop nearby and poked his head over the fence just in time to see a tall, handsome young man with long, dark hair leave the car and let himself into the house with his own key.

Loki burst into the house, his anger overwhelming him.

They were in the living room and Loki caught the young man by the shoulders and thrust him against the wall, his forearm crushing the man's windpipe. He whipped out a knife and held it behind the man's ear. "You will not see her again, nor speak. Do you understand? I have come to reclaim my wife and will tolerate no—"

Then he realized the eyes looking back were his own.

Sigyn sank onto the couch, her arms about her slim form. "Have you lost your wits so much as to forget your own son?"

Loki's eyebrows rose significantly. "Narvi?"

She covered her face with her hands and sighed in frustration. "Do you think the loyalty I gave you would not extend to our children?"

Loki's grip relaxed and the young man threw him across the room. He groaned before chuckling. "The Midgardians have a habit of throwing me about, too." He pulled himself up and sat opposite Sigyn. "My apologies, my son. I believed your mother to have taken a lover."

"He cannot speak."

The grin froze on Loki's face. "What?"

Sigyn spoke quietly to Narvi in Old Norse before turning to her husband. "The witch—the woman who you left us for—took his ability to speak once those Æsir left and it was clear that they would not return. He has not spoken in over one thousand years. This is your fault, husband."

"Truly, you cannot speak?"

"The witch you—coupled with, she took his voice."

"I will regain it for you, my son."

Narvi smiled sadly and shook his head at his father's promise.

Loki turned back to his wife. "What have you done in all this time?"

She shrugged elegantly. "We survived as best as a woman with no husband and fatherless children can in these miserable worlds. We survived throughout the changing of the times. It has been easier these last few decades. But I always live in fear of when times will change yet again. And times are always changing."

Loki looked about the room quickly, a panic settling over his features. "Where is Vali? By Odin, Sigyn! Where is he? Where is our son?"

She caught his hands and held tightly. "Calm yourself. Vali is well. He has worked in Denmark and Norway for many years now. He does not fare as well away from the Old Country."

"You are all working? What did you do before now? When times were more like..."

"There were nights when it was so very cold and our bellies were empty and a few minutes in a man's arms would have solved such problems. And there nights when I longed for a man's arms, when no payment would have been needed. But I knew I could not. Not even for our children. I knew I could never repay you in kind, no matter my desperation."

Narvi placed a protective hand on his mother's shoulder, his pale eyes hooded as he observed his father.

Sigyn touched his hand. "When the boys became old enough to take jobs, and pose a threat to anyone who would wish to hurt them, it became easier. Not much, but enough."

Loki studied her, his face twisting with emotion. Every suppressed memory arose again. In his mind, she still appeared as the bride he remembered exchanging vows with. Yet there was a weariness in and about her eyes which told him of their struggles. "Please, believe me, I did not know what happened. Please." He cupped his hand about her cheek, wiping away the tears with his thumb.

Narvi disappeared into the back of the house, leaving his parents alone. Sigyn caught Loki by the wrists. "When you disappeared and I heard of the monsters the witch bore you—and what they are to bring about—husband, how could you? I defended our sons at such a high cost. Your other children would have murdered them. But I stopped them." She stood. "You have no right here. I have heard of your mischiefs; even the cosmos could not contain what your evil nature, this new nature, has done."

He pulled her close and buried his face in her shoulder, breathing deeply. "What has this planet done to you? You are not the Sigyn I remember, the one I loved."

"Is it love that caused you abandon us so?"

He ground his teeth. "I was forced out of favor by the Æsir! Do not speak to me as if I had a choice."

"There is always a choice, husband."

She turned and the room shifted into a memory of the Hall, their home built so long ago. She was dressed in flowing robes, her hair flowed past her waist, and the sky spoke of snow to come. "You were not the only one with the power of illusions. I merely utilize mine differently."

He joined her at the window, overlooking the green hills of summertime. The wind whipped at his own robes. It was no particular place, merely a fading memory, but the memory still retained strong traces of peace, a peace which he had missed. He placed one hand on her shoulder and another about her waist and pulled her tightly. "But I am now returned. Must you bear this anger still?"

She placed her hands over his. "My examples as 'the good wife' were immortalized by the Snorri, son of Sturlu, in his _Prose Edda_. Was I so blindly in love to be seen as such a weak figure?"

Loki kissed her neck, running his nose along her cheek and up to her temple, feeling the desire for her return. It had been too long since he had last been with an immortal. He pulled his mind from his last conquest, a member of an old Boston family, and focused on seducing his wife. Sigyn's love was a marvel, one which had danced through his consciousness more times than he had wished. Until now. Now he was thankful for the memories. Even though she had appeared as a minor Æsir to the mortals, she was so much more to those truly acquainted with the workings of Asgard.

His nimble fingers began to work through her hair. He slipped the shoulder of her gown off, massaging the white skin. His lips twitched to see the familiar twin freckles on her shoulder blades. "You have grown stronger in your time amongst the mortals."

"One must be in order to survive. A lone woman with children makes an easy target."

Loki reached into her consciousness, hoping to touch the memories buried deep within. The pain overwhelmed him, causing him to cringe: starvation more often than not, running from slavers and rapists, the importance of deceiving the ever-changing religious authorities, the constant guard lest the source of her eternal youth be discovered…

It was the loneliness which overbore him, though. He had thought himself alone. The illusion of the Hall disappeared, showing them back in the small but richly furnished home. Once again, he was in his mud-spattered suit and she in professional wear. He growled at the sight of her clothing. The robes had been much more conducive to love-making than the modern fashion. Instead, he lowered his head onto her shoulder. "I had no idea."

"I still fear the coming of winter." Her hands trembled. "It took all that I had in order to survive the first winter. We eventually made our way south enough where the winters were not as hard, but my power was weak. They did not know us in the southern lands, nor did they want to. Then came the revolutions and the planet cried out as it was pushed beyond its bearing until it stands as it does now."

He gathered her in his arms, pulling her onto his lap. "I will take you back to Odin and Frigg immediately. They will be proud to see Narvi and Vali and will welcome you back—"

"What leads you to assume I wish to return?"

His head jerked up. "What?"

"Why do you sound so shocked? I have been here; I have made a life for myself and my sons, and things are the best they have ever been. Would the Æsir even remember who I am? I was so content to reside in your shadow in those days."

Loki evaded the question by looking about the room. "How have you supported yourself? I understand Thor's woman lives not half so well."

She raised her eyebrows at the last sentence, but said, "I teach Norse culture and legends at the universities. Sometimes, I teach Old Norse for various linguistics seminars. And Narvi has many friends and is well loved at his job. He is a carpenter, as skilled as the legends once proclaimed. Vali takes after you. He prefers to work at the ski resorts, flirting his way through the endless supply of willing, young females."

"Sons of mine, working for mortals?"

"You should not have abandoned us."

"Must it come back to this?"

"A millennium is a very long time." She stood. "It grows late. I care not if you leave or stay. Good night."

Loki watched as she left. Her form was still strong, and he had felt the lush curves of her body through the fine fabric of his suit. Even if reason declared her unhappy, her body, and his, was more than glad at his return.


	3. Professor Thorson

It was nearing dawn when Sigyn awoke. She opened her eyes slowly, relishing the last remains of her dream. Her husband had returned and all had been well. All had been very, _very,_ well again. A pity it was a dream.

She curled and stretched, awakening her body.

"Your habits have changed little over the years."

She rolled onto her side and found herself nose to nose with her husband, in her bed and unrobed. She yanked the blankets over herself. "You dare enter my room."

"If they perceive you as the goddess of fidelity, should you not welcome me back in to your bed?" He played with a strand of her hair, wrapping it around his fingers and kissing it. The golden hairs slipped free and he ran his fingers up her bare arm. He traced her collarbone before his fingers danced along her throat.

"It has been a long time. There is much to relearn."

He snorted. "From the cues your body gave, I doubt it needs much relearning." He leaned against the pillows of the bed, his muscles rippling with the small movement. The sheet was pulled taught across his body. "I have been patient. I waited until you had awoken to present myself physically."

She sat up, the sheet still clutched to her bosom. "You—you entered my dreams last night? How could you?"

He rose to meet her, to look deep into her eyes. "I needed to know. Time may have registered differently for me, yet I have missed you! All of me has missed you, both body and soul. You are my other half." He took her hand and kissed it. "I beg your forgiveness for what I have done and I will pay a thousand times more. But for now, I beg you, let us take advantage of what we have. For the days will only grow darker before they grow lighter again."

She let him stroke her face before he cradled her head in his arm and kissed her, gently at first, teasing both parties, before allowing the hunger of the last millennia to break free. Her hair, as long and bright as their memories, flowed about them as they sated their hunger until the flowers outside began to brighten from the effects of their actions.

The sun grew hazy and hot, drying the remaining mud puddles. It is still said now that the last flowers before autumn will stir within one the greatest passion for one's soul mate. And only one's soul mate can quench the fire, a blessing and a curse from the returned Æsir.

When at last they lay together, Loki turned to the wife of his youth. He traced her features with his finger, the light sparkling from the stone on his finger. "You are exactly as I remember. The years have been kind to your face."

"One of the English poets wrote something similar: 'God in His mercy grant her grace for she has a pretty face'. I took the compliment and the gift and left before the poet could further his attentions."

He sighed and pulled her close again until their noses touched. "I never forgot you. The years in Asgard without you were crueler than any of the time forced under the torment of the serpent."

"I forgot how golden your tongue truly was," she said, throwing him and the blankets off and rising. Her golden tresses surrounded her like a cloak as she pulled clothing from her wardrobe.

He rose up on one arm. "What are you doing?"

"Preparing for work, naturally." She threw a green silk blouse on to the bed. "Or what has become natural for me."

"You still wear our colours," he observed, his mouth slipping into a smile. The fact pleased him more than it logically should have.

Sigyn looked over the varying shades of gold and green filling her wardrobe. Black was in abundance and she selected a black skirt. "Few other colours feel right. Some habits refuse to die."

She closed the wardrobe door and dressed.

"I fear I find this more arousing than watching you undress," he said, sitting up, the sheet still across his middle.

"Then it must truly have been too long since you enjoyed the company of a woman. Or a man, depending on your form." She sneezed while attempting to clasp the lacy bra.

Loki leapt to attention.

Sigyn ignored his renewed interest and slipped into her shirt. She pulled on a pair of high, black boots and pinned her hair up before leaving.

"Sigyn!"

She poked her head back in the door. "You summoned, my lord and master?"

His face flushed. "You would just leave?"

"My apologies, husband. Some habits died long ago."

She kissed him on the cheek before turning. Loki shivered at the frost which fell across the room in her absence.

Sigyn dismissed her final class for the day. Outside, it was dark and the rain poured forth again. Thunderstorms were predicted and, shouldering her bag, she wondered if tonight would bring back Thor and the Æsir to reclaim their rightful positions.

But that was merely wishful thinking. In the hallways, she passed the students and other faculty members who were still in at such a late hour. She was recognized as The Expert in her field, a fact which many of her colleagues both respected and resented. One of her graduate students asked for an appointment the next day, which she marked down before bidding him good evening and walking to her office.

Inside the sanctum of those four walls, with the lights turned off, she threw herself into her chair and sighed. Unbidden, an illusion built up around her, a winter glade where Loki had chased her for three years and a half in their courtship. She smashed the illusion, condemning it to the deepest recesses of her mind, and watched the rain beating against her window. Lightning lit up her dark office for a moment and the thunder followed so immediately that she jumped, rattling her mug on the desk.

There was a knock at the door. An unfamiliar voice called, "Professor? Professor Sarah Thorson, are you in there?"

She opened the door, remembering to flick on the light. An unfamiliar man and woman, both of whom she towered over, stood outside. He held up a badge. "Agent Coulson of S.H.I.E.L.D., ma'am. This is Dr. Jane Foster. I was wondering if we could talk."

"I already told your people, I am not interested in working with you. I am fully committed throughout the next two years and have no time for government tricks."

She tried to close the door, but Coulson stopped it. "It's not about that, Professor. It's just a routine questioning."

She folded her arms in front of her. "I have done nothing wrong."

"We know."

"Does this concern my son?"

"No, ma'am. It concerns you. May I step in?"

"I was just about to go home."

He smiled apologetically. "I'm afraid I have to insist. There's a fugitive in the area who I think you can help us with."

"I will do what I can," she said, propping the door open. "Please, sit."

They sat quickly on the seats provided for students, uncomfortable but serviceable. Agent Coulson quickly said, "Professor, I have a few confidential questions for you. You may wish to close your door."

She sat perfectly straight on the other side of her desk. "I doubt there is anything you can say that is that private."

"Professor, I just wanted to know if you have seen this man around."

He held up a picture of Loki and she raised an eyebrow. "Is there any reason I should?"

"We have reason to suspect he was in your neighborhood last night. We weren't able to get ahold of anyone at the house, so we looked you up. You have a son, right? How old is he? Could he have seen this man?"

A brilliant beam of lightning struck the building, knocking out the electricity. Sigyn's phone signaled a text message. Mother, come home, please_._ "I'm sorry, but I must hurry home. There has been an emergency."

She gathered up her bag and shooed the two outside. "I am a very quiet person, Agent Coulson. My son and I retire early. I wish you luck in pursuing your suspect."

"You seem anxious. Is there anything I can help with?"

She locked the door. "I doubt it."


	4. SHIELD

When the taxi pulled up in front of her brownstone, Sigyn nearly forgot to pay the man before jumping out The storm has only grown in its fury and the thunder shook her very marrow. A spark of fear alit inside of her, one which had not struck since the migration of the Æsir.

"Whenever you're ready to return," she whispered, looking up to the sky, the rain soaking her.

Narvi opened the door for her and handed her a fluffy towel. His hair was braided today, and it hung well below his shoulders. He pointed to the guests about them. _They will not leave!_

_And your father?_

_I know not where._

She turned and faced the large, black man with the eye-patch standing in her living room. "Forgive my appearance; it is quite the night outside."

"We requested a special storm for you, Professor," he said, standing in front of the fireplace with his hands clasped behind his back. His long leather coat dripped water onto the wood floor. "I understand we have a mutual acquaintance and he seems to have a special influence with the weather."

She continued to pat her hair dry, strands escaping from its neat knot. No man, save her husband, had seen her hair loose since her wedding day. "I am afraid I do not know the newest weather man. He will attend the fundraiser next week—"

"Professor Thorson, we both know we're not talking about the weather man. Not in those general terms."

She smiled in a way which had charmed thousands over the years. With it, she had contented many of the men who yearned for far more than a mere smile. "I am afraid I do not comprehend. If you wish to speak of Thor, the Norse god of thunder, I would invite you to attend one of my freshmen seminars at the University of Massachusetts Boston. If you send me an email..."

Loki entered the room, his suit clean and his hair perfectly groomed. "Colonel Fury," he said smoothly, "I would ask you not to harass my wife. She has only recently learned of my return."

"Loki, why are you doing this?"

The Sly One stood by his wife, his arm about her shoulders, his free hand resting on his walking stick. "I would remind you that an ant has no quarrel with a boot. However, should you threaten my family, I will destroy you and all you hold dear."

Sigyn caught him by the arm. "Stop this. We do not want trouble."

Fury said, "I am afraid it is too late for that, Professor. Your boyfriend destroyed nearly all of Manhattan last year. Did you not know?"

She sighed. "You just can't stay out of trouble." She turned to Fury. "I know he is a troublemaker. It is a common characteristic amongst many cultures' folklores."

"You speak as if you know him."

Lightning flashed, the lights flickered, and the front door blew open in time to the overly-loud roar of thunder. A tall figure, drenched with the rain, stepped in. "As well she should, Colonel," said the drenched figure, his red cape leaking even more water onto the floor. "This is Sigyn, daughter of Odin, and my foster-sister, mother of Narvi and Vali, and wife of Loki since time unknown."

"An impressive list of references." Fury turned to Sigyn. "I suppose I'll take you in as well, then."

But Sigyn ran to greet the newcomer. "Asa-Thor!"

He embraced her, his tears mingling with the rain on his face.

Sigyn drew back, still clutching his shoulders. "What took you so long? How did you finally find me?"

"It is a long story for a long winter's night, and we lack the time for such."

Loki swung his cane, but Thor stopped it mid-motion, catching it with the aid of his hammer, Mjolnir. "Do not fight this. Your family has been returned to you. Think of them. Do not let this madness separate you from them yet again. You may not be so fortunate a second time."

He leaned in and whispered, "There is a force behind this, one who I think you will remember well. At least, she remembers you."

Loki's frown deepened at his brother's words. He looked to Sigyn, her arms about Narvi's neck as she whispered instructions in Old Norse to him. He stood straight and nodded. Sigyn looked to her husband and blinked away the tears.

"This way, ma'am," said one of the agents, escorting her outside. Narvi went with two men dressed in battle gear.

Thor's eyes were tired when he turned to his brother. "Will you continue this struggle? There is more to accomplish."

Loki tilted his head. "What would you not do to protect your family?"

The guards approached him with handcuffs. "No, no," Loki laughed, raising his hands. "I will go along peacefully. Your metal bracelets are but toys to those of Asgard."

They led him out into the pouring rain to a guard vehicle which was parked nearby. He found Narvi there as well, his features solemn and his eyes watchful. Sigyn was placed in an unmarked car. Agent Coulson and Thor's woman, Dr. Foster, were with her.

_What took so long, Father?_

Loki looked about and realized his son was looking directly at him. He did not expect the shame that overwhelmed him. He blinked and the nine-year-old boy who he remembered sat shivering on the bench between two guards of the U.S. military. His knobby knees stuck out of short, tattered britches and his hair grew long over his face. His overly-thin face peaked out from behind the hair. Loki blinked again and the fully grown but mute man sat before him.

Thor pulled himself into the armored vehicle. "I will stay with these two. You will ride in the escorting vehicle."

"We have our orders."

"One is but a lad; the other will not be stopped by you. I have family matters of which to speak. No audiences are needed."

The soldiers left and the doors were closed and locked. Thor turned to his nephew and saluted him. "Narvi, you have grown."

Narvi saluted him as best he could with his hands bound. _It is good to see you again, Uncle. I was beginning to wonder if Mother had lost her mind._

Thor laughed, the booming noise echoing in the small area. "Your mother is as wise and gentle as any woman could hope to be. It is good to see she was able to protect you and raise you."

Loki looked up at his brother. "You told me she was dead. That they were both dead." He stood, looking his brother in the eye. "What do you have to say for yourself, Odin's son?"

The truck lurched to a start, making its way down the street.

"We could not find them. We could not contact them. Hel, your fiendish daughter, said she had seen them both die. She claimed to hold them even as she held Baldr—" Thor's voice tightened. "One of the Valkyrie confirmed to having seen them fall. And they never came back. We heard nothing; saw no sign. Even Heimdall and Father's ravens could not find them. It was as if they had never existed. What else were we expected to do? All evidence pointed to their deaths! We gave you what support we could. And it brought you back from your dark mischiefs, even for however short of a time. But, Brother, your family has been restored to you."

_Have we? I see a man who Mother recognizes, and I hear pain in her voice when they speak. Pain and gladness._

The two turned to Narvi, sitting forgotten.

_Both pain and gladness reside in her upon their reunion. But she has changed. And I am no longer the boy the legends spoke of._

"No, no, you are not," said Thor. "I am glad to find you both alive and well. And Vali? He fares well too?"

_He thrives in the wilds of Iceland for now. He suffers greatly when away from the Northern Lands for too long._

"How did you find them, Loki? After all these years..."

"I know not how. It was the Norn who directed me last night."

A glimpse of Frigg in the Hall of Asgard alit in their minds, her smile and bowed head prominent before all faded.

Thor's grip tightened on the metal bar running through the truck. "Listen to me, both of you. The sons of S.H.I.E.L.D. are strong but they are also foolish. Do not anger them. You especially, Loki."

Loki grinned at his brother. "What would give you cause to warn me especially?" He laughed before closing eyes for the remainder of the trip.


	5. An Unexpected Guest

The armored vehicle lurched to a stop and the doors open. Before the ramp could lower, Thor said, "Brother, behave yourself for once."

"When have I ever not?" Loki made his way down the ramp. A bright speck of light heralded Tony Stark's approach. He smirked and continued along willingly.

He turned and saw Narvi studying his features.

_Mother would be uneasy to see you smile so. Who is he who approaches?_

"You'll meet him soon enough. And if he offers you a drink, take it. You may not get a second chance."

They entered the low, public building where elevators would them into the lower levels. Loki sneered as his brother kissed the woman Jane Foster before entering the elevator.

"Silence, brother."

Loki's face became as innocent as an angel's. "I said nothing, brother."

The elevator lowered them into the bowels of the planet, further than even the deepest of the Boston subways.

Fury took Narvi down one hallway, his features grim. Loki was taken to an interrogation room. A tall, dark man was waiting for him. Loki recognized his features as what one former lover had described as "classically attractive".

Loki sat in a chair, and the man sat down across from him.

"I'm Agent Smith. Fury's told me a lot about you."

"No, it's not."

"What's not?"

"Your name is not Smith."

The man's cocky look faded slightly. "Doesn't matter."

Loki laugh at him from across the table. "You humans are so petty and weak. Do you really think I would allow myself to be captured if I did not want to be here?" He leaned forward, the light shadowing his features. He grinned. "I know every move your petty organization will make before it is made. I have not wasted my time as you have wasted yours."

Agent Smith shook his head. "See, you're wrong. We've been expecting you, and leading experts are standing by. It ended up being a lucky thing that Professor Thorson refused to work with us since she's supposed to be your wife." He stood and went to the door. "Anyways, we thought it might be worthwhile to see if you'd talk to someone who isn't S.H.I.E.L.D. or from your home world."

"Asgard is not my home."

"If it's where people made an attempt at loving you, I'd call that home."

"Any attempt to persuade me will be futile. I know you methods even while in absence. It will not work."

"I have a fifty riding on the knowledge you'll talk to this one." Smith opened the door, and someone entered; a woman judging by the footsteps.

Loki continued to stare at the table, attempting to see what the Avengers were plotting now.

"_Il est le problème_?" It was a woman's voice, young but authoritative. "

"_Oui; je sujet vous-avez caution_," said Smith.

"_Je comprende._"

The door opened and shut, the airlock hissing. A light person sat in the recently vacated chair. A strange perfume wafted through the air. It was familiar, an old scent. Where did he know it...

"_Saga me, hwæt byð best and wyrst._"

Loki refused to look up.

"_Saga me_, Laufeyson."

He looked up. She was very young, reminiscent of Sigyn before the coming to Earth. His chest tightened. "_Ic þe sedge, mannes word_."

They could hear the murmur of a generator in the next room. Loki looked back to the table. The image of the Avengers shifted into a memory: Narvi and Vali wrestling after a bath while Sigyn and a servant tried to pull them apart to dress for bed.

The memory splintered. He looked sharply at the girl across from him, noting her mismatched eyes. The light shifted momentarily, and he saw the deep scarring on one side of her face and the wiry, tangled hair. The appearance of the girl returned to normal.

"You have my attention."

She rested her arms on the table, her rings and bracelets clinking against the table. "I don't need you to listen. I need you to speak."

"And you thought an easy riddle would be the way?" He sat back, feeling very old. "Where are your brothers?"

"Out and about."

He mirrored her position, his chin resting on one hand. "You will leave your half-brothers and Sigyn alone."

She looked about the room. "Yeah, there's an empty threat if ever I heard one." Her words and voice changed. "There are two wives seeking vengeance for your abandonment of them and their children. This just might be the safest place for you. Or it would if you were actually here."

He laughed, the corners of his eyes crinkling deeply. "My dear Hela, all grown up. And so incredibly bitter."

She placed her hands in her lap and slumped. "I need to tell them, S.H.I.E.L.D., something."

"Tell them I said they can join Baldr, for all I care. They are of no matter anymore."

"Can I have the pretty one?"

"Smith? If you wish; take whichever ones you would have. Sexual pleasures are one of the few things most can enjoy equally."

"Thanks, Papa." When she stood, the door opened with a soft hiss. "Agent Smith, he won't tell me anything."

Fury's men moved to take Loki, but the immortal stood quickly. "No need to dirty your hands, gentlemen. I am well aware of the situation."

He looked directly at Hela as he said this. One of her pale blue eyes turned a deep, soulless black, before switching back rapidly.

He knew she would discard the borrowed form soon enough, and the unlucky girl who she had impersonated, or possessed, would probably be found in the morning, altering S.H.I.E.L.D. of the infiltration.

Fury and his men took Loki down the passage he had seen earlier. Narvi was in a cell opposite his. He did pushups at a strange rhythm. It was an old meditation technique, one Loki remembered teaching the boys.

Loki chuckled as Colonel Fury himself swung the bars shut and punched in the code to seal them.

He walked up and placed his hands on the bars. "You really hope to keep me in here? You could not keep me in the cage you built to keep the green monster."

"Our intelligence says we have something you want. Two someones, actually," he said, glancing at Narvi.

Loki laughed softly. "And what benefit do you derive from holding my family hostage? One is already with me, leaving you with one hostage. Yet being as they believe I abandoned them long ago, I do not fully understand your reasoning. Why should I care about them after so long? Should you bank so much on sentiment?"

Fury stood so close that his breath gathered on the glass. "What made you seek them out the other night? We were chasing you and things just happened so that you accidentally met up with your ex-wife?"

"My first wife and my last; we bond for life, the Æsir, unlike you pathetic humans."

"Then why did you leave them?"

"You did not spend your time merely to interrogate me about my marital habits. Why did you bring me here, Colonel?"

"I'll ask the questions here."

"But I am the god of mischief and lies. I know the games you play. And I play them better."

"We tried to play fair and call in someone who you might talk to."

"I also know how to interfere with your minds until you question not merely reality, but question your entire existence."

"Then we'll let you simmer here for a bit. Enjoy catching up with your son. I remember following him in a Fantasy Football league a few years ago. He's not bad. And speaking of football, there's a game on upstairs. If you interrupt it for one of your little schemes, I will have your ass."

Fury walked down the hall. "You might also want to ask who turned you in while you're in here. I think someone's a little bitter."

Loki's laugh grew until it filled the corridor. "You really think it would be so easy to capture me? To fool you once is child's play; to fool you a second time, well, it's been a pleasure, Colonel."

The illusion faded and Fury threw open the cell door. He picked up his radio. "Sound an alert! Loki's loose and knows what we're up to."


	6. The Safe House

The car broke away from the cavalcade and onto the highway. Sigyn watched as the buildings of Boston rolled by. The lights from all the cars hurt her eyes, even at this late hour, and she wished for a bath and a glass of wine in front of the fire. "Where are we going? And why are we going a different route from they?"

"We're taking you to a safe house, both of you" said Coulson, sitting in front with the driver.

Jane Foster sat up straight. "What? Seriously? Thor's sending me away!"

"I'm afraid things are a little tricky right now. Part of Thor's bargain was ensuring your safety, for both of you. If things work out all right, we'll bring you back in to the city."

Sigyn eyed the woman sitting beside her. She was pretty, in a quiet way. There was great intelligence in her eyes as well as great worry. There was a fracturing in the girl's demeanor. If she remained in love with Thor for much longer, it would kill her.

The car travelled through the rest of the city before taking an intricate series of roads to a cabin on a lake. Mud splashed against the car, even though the gravel drained most of the water away.

"Where is this place?"

Agent Coulson keyed in the code to open the great gates. "It's one of Mr. Stark's homes. He said we could use it as long as we needed to. He said this was the safest place he could think of. And since Miss Potts is here, I believe him. It wasn't easy to convince Thor of it, either." He hopped out as soon as the car stopped and opened the door for Sigyn. The driver opened the door for Jane before slipping back in and taking the car to one of the garages.

Coulson went up the steps of the very large 'cabin' and allowed the retina scanner to examine him before opening the door. "Ladies," he said, holding open the door. "Evening, Pepper."

The redhead appeared from the back of the house, a glass of wine in hand. "Phil, it's great to see you! Tony said you'd be along earlier."

"Construction on 78th slowed us down a bit. Anyways, this is Pepper Potts; these are Jane Foster and Sigyn—sorry, do you have a last name? I don't feel like I can call you Professor Thorson anymore."

"Odinsdaughter," she said absently, registering the overwhelming wealth.

"Right," said Pepper, her tone noting the chilliness in the air. "Anyways, if you two want to follow me, I can show you to your rooms for your stay. We have wine, and Tony's chef is finishing the preparations for a fabulous meal. "

Sigyn found herself in a room reflecting the faux rustic nature of the cabin-mansion. The building was easy enough to navigate. After a rich yet comfortable dinner, she found herself on the back porch watching the moon emerge from the clouds. She sighed. "Hello, Old Friend."

"Old friend, indeed," said a voice quietly in her ear.

She whipped about, looking for the speaker. There was no one to be seen yet she could sense the presence. She went back inside, locking the door securely. The living room and kitchen were both empty. The entire house felt empty. She could feel the panic rising in her breast. "Dr. Foster? Agent Coulson? Miss Potts?"

A sudden odor wafted through the house. It was overwhelming, and she covered her nose and mouth before entering the dining room. The large windows were open, the gauzy curtains blowing in the breeze. Fenruswulf howled and whimpered as he scratched against the expensively distressed wood until he caught Sigyn's scent. His sister Hela turned and hissed at the sight. Half of her resembled a corpse while the other resembled a woman in the prime of life. Her eyes, one icy blue, the other deep black, narrowed.

Sigyn crossed the threshold and planted her feet. "Where is the third?"

"Jormungand continues his watch over the waters of this world," droned Hela, her voice a strange mixture of youth and age. "We two have come to care for those who would stop us."

"The Avengers? Or the return of your father?"

Fenruswulf growled, his ears laid back. "Your husband is as loose with his affections as you are rigid. This is none of your concern. Go back to your studies and let us finish off these mortals. There is no one on this earth who can stop us."

"Really?" said a new voice.

Loki crouched at the open window, the curtains blowing about him. "There is an old proverb on this planet about boasting, my son." His lips curled cruelly. "Has your power weakened so greatly that you cannot transform into your biped form any longer?"

Fenruswulf growled and snapped his jaws. "They do not fear me as they should. Even Jormungand's grip on this planet slips."

"Quite a feat, as he encircles the Midgard plane. I warned you to never underestimate the power of faith and fear."

The trickster stepped down from the window, the cane swinging from his hand. "I notice Hela has only grown in beauty and wretchedness since we last met. It is good to see you in your true form again, daughter."

She smiled and bowed, brushing back the thick dark hair on one side of her face.

Loki kissed her cheek on the young, healthy side before catching her by the arm. "How did you make it here so quickly?"

"When you have lived as many lives on this earth as I have, you learn a few short cuts," she said, her lips curling. "Let me, Papa."

Loki removed his hand and turned to his son. "And I am see you have only grown, Fenruswulf. But I must ask, how have you escaped your bonds? Is the time of Ragnarok upon us so soon?"

"Only Frigg knows and she tells no one," pouted Hela.

"Oh, so you have spoken with her since the removal of the Æsir? I should very much like to know how."

Sigyn flinched at the edge in his voice, but his two children noticed not.

Hela cackled and Fenruswulf's bark resembled a human laugh. "The children always aim to surpass the might of the father," said Hela. "It is how it has always been and always will be."

Fenruswulf looked to Sigyn, nearly forgotten near the door. He licked his lips and growled. The face began to resemble his father's and he began to pace his way towards her. "What would you do, Father, if I tore out the throat of this woman? What punishment would I incur? You abandoned her. Does that mean she is worth nothing? May I eat her?"

He breathed into Sigyn's face before nipping at her hand. She did not jerk away, though her chest heaved. "I am so very, very hungry," he gasped, trembling with emotion. "What is a life worth? These humans are here today and gone tomorrow."

Loki met Sigyn's eyes before his face became expressionless. "Enough! Both of you, away before Odin or Thor catch sight of your activities."

"You would send us away? Papa, no!" Hela threw herself on the floor and reached for her father's knees, the ancient symbol of complete supplication.

He backed away in disgust. "Away, now."

Hela wept softly even as she evaporated through the floor, back to her stone chambers below the Earth. Fenruswulf growled but bounded out the window all the same.

Loki turned to Sigyn and held a finger to his lips before transforming into an albatross and following his son out the window. She slid down the wall and pulled her knees to her chest.

A panel slid open and Coulson and Pepper appeared, guns drawn.

That was when Sigyn noticed the bodies of two other agents lying near her foot.

"Are they gone?" Coulson stepped over to Sigyn and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Hey, it's going to be all right. Do you have any idea what they were?"

"She's in shock," said Jane, feeling Sigyn's pulse. "Come on, let's get you upstairs."

The phone at Coulson's hip chirped. "Coulson...actually, Colonel, something just happened here..."

He went into the other room. Sigyn slipped away from Jane's support and followed him. At his surprised glance, she said, "I need to explain who they were and what happened."

"Hold on, Colonel. Ma'am, Loki's escaped. Apparently that was only an illusion they took to HQ."

"I know. Agent Coulson..."

"...Yes, sir, we'll keep a perimeter. There's an issue..."

"Agent Coulson..."

"...Two agents were killed..."

"Son of Cole!"

Coulson looked up in surprise. "One moment, Colonel. I'll call you back." He hung up the phone. "What is it?"

"Loki was here."

"For real or was it another illusion?"

From his perch outside Stark's residence, Loki watched as Sigyn told the Agent Coulson, "Truly, he was here as I stand before you. I know my husband's tricks better than anyone."

He swung out of the tree and made his way down to the lake. He crouched by the lake. "Not yet, but very soon," he said, touching the edge of the lake to create the smallest of ripples.

He close his eyes, opening them to see Thor in conference with the rest of the 'Avengers'. As usual, they were fighting about what to do concerning the minor matter of someone named Magneto. Thor walked away in disgust. Out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of Loki. "Yet again you appear as a shadow."

Loki popped into a sitting position on the table. "I believe this may be the first time you have not fallen for that trick."

"You cannot seem to free yourself of this pattern. Some begin to wonder if you were real at all."

"I'm real enough. If I turn my head, I can see your woman, her face drained of colour, panicking, furious..."

"If you have hurt her—"

Loki threw up his hands. "Brother, I have enough to worry about rather than harassing your woman. How has the good Colonel handled my escape?"

Thor chuckled. "He would make his ancestors proud as he lives up to his name."

Loki grinned, his eyes lighting up. "I was unsure if they would notice. But there is more at hand than simple pranks."

"I have nothing more to say to you if this is to be the continuation of our conversation. You are not the most important person in my life anymore, Brother."

He turned to walk back to the room with the Avengers, but Loki called out, "Even if it concerns Ragnarok?"

Thor turned and faced him. "Why do you speak that hated name?"

"Because Fenruswulf and Hel both came tonight and threatened our women. Fenruswulf looks to kill your woman. You must warn these Avengers that the safety of their loved ones is as much an illusion as my presence before you now."

"I will tell them."

"Tell of how my children have killed and are hungry for more. Tell them..." he chuckled to himself. "Tell them I will surrender myself to their custody in order to stop Fenruswulf, Hela, and Jormungand. It is not yet the twilight of the gods."

Thor crossed his arms over his chest. "And how would you know this? Have you spoken with our mother?"

"_Your_ mother, I remind you. And no. It is merely a thought on the wind. But the Old Moon has dropped a few hints, if you should take a few minutes to visit."

"Hey, Thor, when you have a minute," said Steve, poking his head out of the room. "There's a new transmission from the Council."

"One more moment," said Thor. He turned back to his brother. "If you betray us, I will kill you."

"Has your naïveté extended so far that you have no new threats after all this time?"

"Why do I need new threats? You have much more to lose now than you did last time we met. Now, we are on more than equal footing. You have people to care for who make you vulnerable."

He turned on his heel and left, his cape flowing behind him.

Loki removed himself back to the lakeside. The Moon looked down at him, seeming to weep. "What? What do you have to say that is so pertinent?"

He huddled there till morning, meditating on the situation at hand. When the sun arose, though, he breathed a sigh of relief. Once again, the Sun had escaped the voracious wolf chasing her.

Still dressed in the clothing of yesterday, Sigyn made her way through the underbrush to the lake. The one called Pepper Potts was with her. She called for him, stopping nearby.

Pepper asked, "Is he behind the rock?"

Sigyn shook her head and held out a hand to the rock. "You have temporary immunity. Please, help them stop this madness."

Her hand jerked away when Loki transformed back to his true form, yet he caught the hand and kissed it gently. "Good morning, my dear. Good morning, Miss Potts."

"Good morning," said Pepper. "There's a helicopter on its way to take you to New York. It'll be here in about an hour."

"Excellent. In that case, my wife and I shall require the majority of that time alone, if you would be so kind."

"No, you don't," said Sigyn. "We're going back to the house."

"Ooh, I like your new backbone."

"You have an hour."

"Breakfast is waiting," said Pepper. "If you have any interest in food."


	7. Science and Magic

The helicopter landed on top of Stark Enterprises and Agent Coulson hopped out first, offering his hand to help the women out. Pepper led them all to the war room where Fury and all waited.

Thor caught sight of Jane and ran to her, catching her in a large embrace. "What madness has brought you here?"

She looked up at him. "I'm not going to be the 'good girlfriend' and wait for you to come home from the excitement. You snuck off last time. And don't think I won't make you pay."

He bowed to her, and she smiled before taking his hand. He looked down in confusion, but seemed rather pleased.

Tony ran up the steps, his ARC reactor bright through the fabric of his shirt. "Pepper! I thought you were taking time off."

She looked up from the tablet in her hands. "Nope, I didn't even have the pleasure of 12% of the time promised. In case you've forgotten, Tony Stark, I am not the babysitter. I may have started by taking out your trash and making sure you never forgot anything, but I expect at least my twelve percent."

He wrapped his arms about her and gave the puppy-dog eyes. "How about fifteen percent of the time goes towards a luxury cruise this summer?"

"School's just started again."

"Spring break?"

Pepper walked away, her shoulders shaking with suppressed mirth. "I have work to do and so do you. I'm going to D.C. for a conference."

"Christmas?" he yelped, following her out.

Loki laughed. "Is this what love does to you? Turns you into fools?"

Steve turned to Banner. "Is it just me or are you feeling a little outnumbered here with all the couples?"

"If it's all the same to you, I'd rather be back in the lab. I heard we've got some superstitions to deal with? And you can still smell the crazy on that one." Banner pointed to Loki.

"Dr. Banner," said Sigyn, catching her arms behind her, "unless your exploits were caught on video, you would have been regarded as superstition, a passing fantasy in the mind of crazed persons."

"The other guy's a freak. He was created in a lab." Banner folded his arms. "There's nothing superstitious about science."

She smiled, but her eyes gleamed. "Once the giraffe was counted a mythical creature. Yet now it is fact of life. What is magic but undiscovered science?"

Steve jumped in. "Misses, um..." He looked uncomfortably from her to Loki and back to her again. "What do I call you?"

"You may address me as Professor. I teach at the University of Massachusetts, if that means anything to a," her eyes flicked up and down, then one eyebrow rose. "To a military man."

"Yes, ma'am. And yes, ma'am, I understand. It means you're crazy smart. What you're talking about is time, time that it sounds like we don't have. Now, I missed a lot time and don't want to miss anymore. So if we can get down to business, that'd be great."

Thor told Jane, "You should go. We have much to discuss."

"I'm not leaving. I'm tired of being cut out of what's going on. Don't you think it would be safer if I didn't know what was going on? Ignorance isn't bliss."

Fury entered the room, Hill at his side. "Dr. Foster, Professor Thorson, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave." At Jane's fierce look, he added, "I'm afraid you don't have the clearance to be in this room for what we're about to discuss."

Dr. Banner laughed in his peculiar way. "Really? A bunch of us freaks having clearance? Are you handing out clearance badges in Happy Meals now?"

"Dr. Banner, we have a serious threat waiting for us out there."

"Not 'out there'," said Loki. "On its way here. Have you learned nothing of your previous experiences? You must work together or there will be no world to avenge when all this is through."

Banner groaned. "You know it's trouble when the villain gets philosophical."

Tony came back in, a lovesick grin on his face, which faded at the sight of those around him. "Who died in here?"

Fury's attention remained on the women. "Now, ladies, it's time for you to leave."

Sigyn inclined her head gracefully. Jane began protesting, but Sigyn caught her by the shoulder and guided her out. Just before she reached the door, though, she said, "Director Fury, please remember that no slights will be forgotten."

"I understand."

A chill settled over the room in her absence. Thor looked to his brother, who shrugged.

_A new habit of hers_, Loki whispered.

Thor's brow furrowed.

Outside the room, Jane yanked herself free from the taller woman's hand. "Why didn't you insist that we stay? I could've persuaded Thor."

"And they would have all suffered for it. You have earned your doctorate, you have experienced the persecution and misogyny of the academic field. The military is several times worse. It is better that we remove ourselves and find a way to help elsewhere."

Sigyn marched down the hallway, the clicking of her heels magnified by the absence of fabric.

Jane ran after her. "You're just going to let them get away with it? Aren't you some kind of goddess? And what kind of goddess works at a school like U of Mass?"

"One who knows when to fly under the radar and when to reveal herself. And I am not a goddess; I am counted amongst the Æsir. I remember the time when women were held as equals to men, when we held our own lands and commanded our own armies, when a man's first form of counsel was from his wife. It was a time when men were expected to find and value a wife based not merely on her beauty but on her wisdom as well. We were the upholders of society and justice. We managed our own farms, owned land, negotiated marriage alliances. It was the purest form of partnership between the sexes this world has ever seen. And the sooner this world can return to such a system, the better for us all. But it will not be today nor any time in the near future. Now, let us find Miss Potts; she would be our best resource."

"Look, I'm an astrophysicist, not a historian."

"What makes you think historical documents will be our best ally in such a situation? No, I need access to what has become known as myth. Agent Coulson."

He had followed them out of the room. "Professor, Dr. Foster, if there's anything I can do to help...?"

Sigyn said, "I request the release of my son and access to all databases where I might retrieve the literature on the known Norse myths."

"All right." He cleared his throat. "If you'll follow me."

As they entered the elevator, Jane asked, "How is myth supposed to help us? It's not a world of magic and science."

The elevator descended, and Sigyn leaned against the wall. "As one great scholar said, 'And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth'. Who placed anyone in this time to judge what happened and what did not?"

The elevator doors slid open.

"Mother!"

Narvi, Vali," she gasped, embracing her sons and kissing them. "Thank Jorð, you are safe! When did you arrive, Vali?"

"Twenty minutes ago," he said, his long black hair tied back in a ponytail. "They picked me up directly from the airport." He murmured in her ear, _Narvi told me of what was happening. _

_How long can you remain?_

_Three days at most._ He glanced at Jane. "Is it true that Father has returned?"

"Not only that, he has been here twice."

He smiled sweetly and chuckled. "May our charming sister take him."

"Behave yourself." She tapped him on the cheek. "He is still your father, and you must respect him so."

"Yes, Mum."

Coulson stared at the very tall sons of Loki before remembering himself. "Professor, Miss Potts said you can use one of the conference rooms for your research."

"Thank you," she said. When they entered the room, she said, "My sons, you know what to do."

Vali groaned and rolled his eyes in mock despair. "Again?"

His brother laughed silently at him.

Sigyn pursed her lips before answering, "You will help. You always do."

"Mum, I could be out instructing college girls on skiing. American or Swiss or French or Arabic; rich and attractive in every way."

"And increasingly shallow with each generation," she reminded him.

He made a face and sat down to pull up the databases.

_Watch your attitude_.

Vali made a face at his brother and kept working.

"Narvi, be kind," their mother said.

Coulson glanced about him warily before continuing to open the programs which would allow access to nearly any database in the world. "There you are, professor. Is there anything else?"

"Yes, I wondered if you would explain why you spent the ride here as far from Loki as possible. People usually adore him until he crosses them in some fashion or another."

He blushed a furious shade of red. "I'm afraid there's a bit of a history between us, ma'am."

"Mm, the same as always. Boys, stop laughing."

"Yes, Mother." Vali's acknowledgement came out as a squeak.

Sigyn looked Coulson up and down. "He does have a tendency to like all types."

"Nothing of that sort," said Pepper, coming in just in time to hear the conversation. "Loki nearly killed Phil just before the whole New York incident."

"I was dead for forty-five seconds."

Pepper shook her head. "It gets longer every time. But Dr. Foster, there's something that just registered on one of Stark Enterprise's deep space telescopes. Would you mind having a look? It'd be nice to know if anyone else is planning to stop by, like Galactus again."

"Absolutely," said Jane, hopping up and following Pepper out.

"Phil, would you head upstairs and make sure the crowd there don't kill each other again?"

As the doors slid open for Coulson, Pepper, and Jane, Sigyn said, "Dr. Foster."

She stopped. "What, Professor?"

"I do not want there to be enmity between us. I certainly do not want to resemble those in the war room."

Jane's eyes crinkled with her smile. "I understand." She gave a mock salute before the shut behind her.

_I trust her,_ said Narvi.

"I know you do," Sigyn said, stroking Vali's hair.

Vali rested his elbows on the table. _Why did you bring us here? What we do not know is not here._

_What we do not know is not on this planet._

Narvi's eyes grew large. _You would summon the rest of the Æsir? But how? _

_We know they are watching again. Or that at least they can watch again. Heimdall will find us soon enough, if he has not already. At this point, I think we can easily summon those we need._

_Mother, who would you call?_

_Ghostbusters! _

Narvi grinned at his brother's jest. _I doubt they would assist. Remember, we are the ghosts now. _

"Remember what you are looking for." Sigyn smoothed the ponytail of her younger son. "A few here are trustworthy, but most are not."

"Mother, we were born to the greatest creator of mischief in all of history. How could we not remember the importance of trusting wisely? Shut up, Narvi!"

"Boys, both of you!"

"What are you going to do? Call Dad?"

"Do not turn this into a quarrel. Our problems have only intensified. Do you remember what happened in Rome? Byzantine? England? Once the government knows about us, we are not safe until it falls. It was nearly a generation after the death of Henry V before we were able to escape the Tower in England. I would prefer not to wait so long again."

"Mother, we were children then. I should hope we have learned since then."

_Although history has believed us to be princes now_.

"Which we deserve."

Sigyn snapped her fingers. "Both of you, start sifting through the information. I won't tell you again."

It was evening before the doors slid open. Loki entered, mentally exhausted. He saw Sigyn hunched over a computer screen. Vali slept on the floor, stretched out with his jacket for a pillow; Narvi looked nearly asleep in front of his screen.

Loki touched his wife's shoulder and she jumped. "Sh, sh, dear, it's only me."

"Then why do I not feel reassured?" she muttered, adjusting her position.

"And what a cozy family setting for a reunion."

She leaned against him, and his arm slipped about her. "I'd rather be back home for such a reunion."

"And where might home be?"

"Anywhere with a comfortable bed."

"I heartily agree, although a comfortable chair will work just as well."

She held his hand and rubbed the ring on his finger. "Behave yourself. Our children are here."

He bent down and teased her ear. "You like it, though. You've missed it."

"Maybe."

He nipped her ear. "Just slightly?"

She pushed him away and opened up a new window on the computer. "There's a group online called 'Loki's Army'. Would you happen to know anything about them?"

He scanned the words and pictures on the webpage. "Other than they worship me as a sex god? And have, what does that say? 'Feels' for me? No, my love; this time, I am not raising an army."

"Then what were you doing that night? Truly, tell me."

He helped her up, and they walked, arm in arm, down the hall. "I was meeting with a prestigious woman in Boston. Her husband caught us as I was leaving and I panicked. He owned a rather large rifle and had no qualms about using it."

"It's always sex with you."

He nuzzled her neck. "Don't deny you don't like it."

"I'd prefer if you kept your attentions on me." She looked up into his face. "Should I expect another eight-legged horse to be born?"

"By Jorð, I hope not! Sleipnir was more than enough. If I birthed another, Odin would hitch them to a chariot."

"What a loving grandfather."

"There was a reason we stopped having children after Vali."

She laughed as they stepped onto a low balcony. "Well, then," she said, raising an eyebrow at the scene before them.

On the level below them was a pool. Beside it, Thor and Jane were kissing. Or Jane kissing Thor, not that he was resisting.

Sigyn braced herself against the railing. "What happened between he and Sif? Thor has always been honorable to a fault. As I recall, it was she who bore a son who obviously was not Thor's."

"If has never been proven that he was mine."

She grunted.

Loki coughed, nervous. "Thor is honourable, and naïve as well. They still love each other, I have no doubt. Their sons fare well, growing every day."

"But what has sent him into the arms of a mortal?"

"That is between Sif and he. Now, should you wish to ask, by all means. But it would entail several challenges, none of which I am sure you could handle."

"Times have changed us all."

"And yet, so much has not changed. Come, my wife."

Just before they left, he shouted down to Thor, "A room would be advised!"

Thor yelled back, "You're to speak, Brother!"

Jane giggled, her cheeks red from his beard.

Sigyn and Loki found the roof garden. The lights of New York City spread out before them. They could just hear the sirens below. The energy of the city was amazing. Yet—

"What is it, my love?"

Sigyn rested her arms on the ledge. "There are times when I miss home."

He began to kneed her neck, attempting to untangle the knots in her muscles. "Home in Scandinavia?"

"Home in Asgard; that is where we truly belong."

"We could go back now. This is not your quarrel. Sigyn, love, look at me."

She turned and faced him.

He took her hands and held them tightly. "I am sorry for leaving you behind. Believe me, please. I would give anything to have that time back with you."

"I believe your sorrow. There is something else I require."

He bowed his head, his jaw clenched tightly.

"Pride has served no one well, my dear."

He nodded before raising to meet her eyes. "Sigyn, my lifeblood, will you forgive me? I should have searched longer and never given up."

She touched his face, running her hand along the sharp planes. "You have grown older and wiser...I do. I do forgive you."

He relaxed in relief.

"Again."

"Witch of a wife."

She struck him sharply across the face. "Never call me that! I am not the witch! I am your wife. Your first wife. No matter how many times you have strayed, I have always made sure I would be there to welcome you back. I heard of how the Bifröst was broken to save the Ygaddrisil from your schemes. Do not think my time here has been entirely wasted. Do I not have ears? Do I not have eyes? Do I not still have the magic which you taught me?"

He pinned her against the ledge. "Do not push me too far, woman," he snarled. He ran his yanked at the clip and tossing it over the edge. He ran his hands through her hair, pulling slightly.

"You would be nothing without me and you are more than aware of such a fact." She laughed. The wind blew, waving her hair about. "Besides, I am not the one you must fear. The second wife is waiting for you."

"No." Loki let go and stumbled back. "No, Angrboda is dead. I killed her myself! I killed her myself and burned her black heart!"

Sigyn collapsed against the wall, her face drawn. "She's not dead." She wrapped her arms about her, and her husband flew to her side, holding her close. "She comes closer every day. She has hunted our sons and me...I am so very tired."

He cradled her in his arms like a child and carried her back in to Stark Tower. There was a bedroom set aside for Sigyn. It looked rather large for one person.

He lay her on the bed. She tried to sit up, but he stopped her. "Lie down and don't move. Tonight, I will care for you." He kissed her. "And treasure you as you deserve. Tonight is the night you remember you are a Princess of the Æsir. And I, your loving husband, will remind you."

She curled up on her side, but he slowly removed her pumps. He helped her sit up and pulled the silk blouse of pale gold off. "Oh, my dear," he sighed, running a hand across her bare skin. His lips followed his hands and she shivered beneath him. "I have missed you."

Her skirt soon joined the rest of her clothing. He made sure to lay everything neatly on one of the chairs. However, when she sat up against the pillows with her hair arranged about her, and he saw the welcome in her eyes, he flew into a fury. Buttons from his shirt flew everywhere as he ripped it off. Frustrated with the uncooperativeness of the modern clothing, his trousers soon joined the pile on the floor as he transformed into a garden snake and wiggled his way up the bed under the sheets.

Sigyn lifted the sheet about an inch so he could wrap himself about her. "I suppose that is a new take on 'under the sheets'."

"No talking," he said hoarsely, mad with desire. "Tonight is ours. The Ever Night."

"Dawn must come soon enough."

"Sh, sh, sh," hissed the snake, tickling her ear. "Now, where was I. Ah, yes..."


	8. Taken

When the first morning light broke into the room, Loki's eyes opened a slit and he pulled Sigyn even closer to himself, relieved at how well their bodies still fit together. It was a union to never be broken...

She stretched as she awoke and he felt himself awake again. His hand began to wander, but she rolled over and pressed herself against him before he could create too much mischief. "I swear, if you have impregnated me with a snake, I will banish you to the farthest, most isolated region of the Nine Realms."

"There is no need to worry about such," he said, sliding on top and kissing her.

Her back arched in pleasure, her legs locked about him. She wrapped her arms about his neck, her nails catching and tearing at his soft skin.

There was a knock at the door. "Anytime you're done in there!"

"Let us be, Stark!" Loki called back, too focused on his wife.

"Fury wants a meeting in ten minutes. And you two made the chandelier downstairs come crashing down. Half terrorized Steve."

"Not now, Stark! By Odin, woman, behave yourself!"

Sigyn's eyes were dark with pleasure as she nipped him again. She whispered something in his ear, and he laughed aloud before burying his face in her neck.

Stark's laugh echoed throughout the hall as he left.

Loki ravaged her with his kisses before panting in her ear, "My apologies. I should have known we would be interrupted when the sun rose."

"Quickly," she said, toying with a section of his hair. "It would be a most unfortunate day for you. You will need all your wits about you to bother with this lot."

He laughed before plunging deeper.

"…And it just fell with a crash! Nearly scared me half to death."

Banner shook himself awake as he and Steve walked in to the war room. He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "It was a late night in the lab. Could you not talk so loudly?"

"Sure. Morning, Stark. Did you hear about—?"

"I did and I also discovered what caused it."

"Oh?"

Stark grinned evilly. "It seems our resident god and goddess have been making up for lost time. They were at it again this morning."

He laughed at Steve's face. "We really need to get you out sometime. Maybe Johnny Storm will introduce you to some ladies. I'd do it myself but Pepper has me on a short leash recently."

"You speak as if that's a good thing."

Stark's eyes twinkled Thor and Loki joined them. Thor's face bore its usual seriousness. Loki, however, looked ready to create as much mischief as possible. "So the sex was good," Stark said.

"It was most…fulfilling," Loki said. "It would appear there is something to the concept of delayed gratification."

"Loki, behave yourself," said Thor. "We have more important things to discuss than you bedding your wife."

Steve scoffed. "Unless she produces more monsters like those you said are coming."

Thor reached to hold back his brother, but Loki was too fast. He held Captain America against the wall, his hand grasping the super soldier's throat. "The insinuation alone is disgustingly offensive. If you ever speak of her in such a manner again, I shall kill you."

"Loki, let him go," commanded Thor.

"Eh, I'd let him hang for a bit," said Stark, shrugging his shoulders. "I'd want to do the same thing if someone said that about Pepper."

"If you could reach the man's throat," Thor muttered. "Loki, he is our ally. Let him go."

Loki let the man slide to the ground before hopping onto the table in the middle of the room. He sat cross-legged, and his eyes gleamed with delight. "Now, shall we begin?"

Sigyn stared at the map and genealogy on her computer screen, a cup of tea in hand. _Where are you hiding?_ The two were overlaid, forming a pattern. Of what, she could not yet tell.

The map turned a half degree, changing the pattern slightly. Still nothing made itself apparent.

It turned again.

And again.

The automatic doors whispered as they opened and shut. A fresh cup of tea appeared in front of her nose. "Thank you," she said, still staring at the screen. She grimaced at the taste, coughing as the bourbon burned her throat. "What the—Loki!"

He grinned and perched on the desk, sticking his finger in the liquid and turning it back to mint tea. "All the more reason you should pay attention to me and not a piece of technology."

"Mm, I believe there are many who would forgive me, considering your past transgressions."

"Must we always come back to this?"

She leaned back in the chair, the cup's rim resting against her lips.

"What are you looking for?"

"Something Heimdall told me long ago, before we even came to Midgard. He said...he said that things we lost have a way of coming back to us in the end, though not always as you intended. There is something in this map and genealogy chart which tug at a memory. I know the memory is there, but I know not what it is until I see it."

"Where are the boys?"

"Narvi went for a stroll. Vali sleeps."

"Since we are alone, then..." He took her free hand and turned it over to buss her wrist. "Pay more attention to me, dear. I doubt the technology can treat you like I can."

She pulled her hand away. "Stop distracting me. Or do you not hold yourself responsible for solving an issue which you, yet again, created?"

"They went on a lunch break. My preference is to feast on you as opposed to Stark's fancy fare. If you insist, though..."

"I do. I need to focus."

He set her hand down gently and gave her his best smile. "Give us a give kiss, dearie."

She kissed him on the cheek before settling back in her chair. The doors whispered open and shut.

The map continued to shift. But it was looking familiar. It pulled on a memory: a tapestry, hidden in one of the darkest regions of the palace of Asgard...where Frigg would go to weep silently for the fate of the Nine Realms...

_Mother!_

The tea sloshed over the rim. It was the sobbing of a child, cutting to her soul.

_Mother, help me, please._

Sigyn leapt to her feet, turning and looking, wishing for the sight to see beyond the walls.

_Mother, she promises she will take you if you come willingly._

"Then tell her I will come."

_Mummy, I'm scared._

She drew a deep breath and closed her eyes.

The doors whispered open and Loki ran in. "No!" he cried, his arm stretched towards her as Sigyn disappeared into the thinness of air.

After Sigyn's dismissal, Loki walked along the corridor, his chin to his chest as he pondered her words. And the puzzle of map on the screen. It triggered a memory...something on the walls at Asgard...something that he would pass and think nothing of.

And then he remembered. "By Jorð!" He sprinted back to the room, actually passing through people in his haste. That was new.

The doors whispered open only just in time to allow him to pass through. "No!" he cried, arm outstretched as she disappeared.

A low cackle began and grew about him, shaking the room until he wanted to crawl under the table and hide.

"Brother!"

Thor's worry cut through Loki as he remembered his words spoken not too long ago: _You must be truly desperate to come to me for help_. "I know where she is. But I need your help."

"Where?"

The computer chirped and he felt the bile rise in his throat as he recognized the symbol, the dread symbol of the ancient enemy. "Angrboda. She has been taken to Angrboda."


	9. Signed, Sealed, Delievered

The sound of water dripping into a pool first greeted her senses. The smell of damp earth and moss and rocks came next. Then it was the gravel digging in to her arms, legs, and back which finally woke her.

Sigyn sat up carefully, not trusting anything about her. The moss glowed dimly, and she followed the path into a larger chamber.

The witch giantess was waiting. Her multi-coloured hair hung in several braids down her back, and her pale eyes reflected the glow of the moss. "Merely you and I, together, at last, as it should have been all those years ago."

The first wife of Loki knelt down on one knee and touched the ground for strength before rising again. "Angrboda, is it truly wise to show yourself so? Until now, they believed you had returned with the giants during the Age of Conversion."

"You are a mother; you alone will understand. My children are linked to this world in a way that no magic can sever. You understand why I could not leave."

Sigyn shivered. "Where is Narvi?"

"Here." She moved aside and Narvi peeped out, his eyes bright in the dimness. He looked like a nine-year-old human child. "Say hello to your mummy, darling."

"Are you my mummy?" His voice quavered, just as it did during that first winter. He was as skinny as he and his brother had been then, when the snow raged about them and they had turned blue with cold.

Sigyn gasped, as if physically struck. "His voice is back."

"Of course. You read the contract. You took the pen and _signed _the scroll, dearie."

"Don't hurt him. Please, don't hurt him!" Sigyn tried to run to her son, but the witch pushed her back, her long arms able to separate them.

"You didn't think I'd make this easy, did you?"

"What is the purpose of this? Haven't we suffered enough?" The tears began to flow. "I do not seek out to destroy your children anymore than I would seek to destroy my own!"

"No, instead you keep your conscience clear by merely leading the hunters to my children. Sweet, kind, innocent, womanly, _stupid_ Sigyn; the golden wife who puts all else to shame. You make me sick."

Sigyn's face twisted. "I hope you're happy. I hope you are so very happy with how you have hurt your cause forever. Did Loki's cleverness wear off on you so?"

"How can I be happy when you hold his heart?"

Angrboda raised the boy high in the air. "Mother!" he screamed, his arms and legs flailing.

Sigyn clutched the pendent about her throat. "Stop! Please, stop! I will do whatever you ask!"

The giantess stopped as if to think. Then she smiled, a cold smile, full of satisfaction. "You are nothing. Nothing, Sigyn. You are forgotten by all. You barely earn a paragraph in the literary records. Even the romantics look upon your name in scorn. Except, you have done one last thing which I needed. And you didn't fully appreciate the action until—"

Loki appeared from nothingness, his robes slightly singed from the journey.

"—Now."

Loki rose from the kneeling position and shuddered at what he saw. He gripped his hair. "Angrboda, don't hurt him. I'll do anything!"

The giantess lowered the boy. "I used to be so very, very proud of having mated with a blood brother of the great Æsir. Imagine, one of the greatest immortals, mating happily and living with one such as I!" Her eyes softened. "And that you cared for our children well, you once loved them so much. You were so in love with the darkness...Ah, well, the mortals say all honeymoon phases must end before their time."

"Please, put the boy down."

"And what will you give me, Laufeyson?"

He gulped and glanced at Sigyn, who appeared to be shrinking with every tormented moment. "I will return to you."

"That's not good enough," hissed the giantess.

Narvi yelped from the pressure on his arm.

"You have your first wife, the one who you always, always, _always_ return to! The one who always accepts you back, even when you betray her for other races!"

There was foam about the giantess' mouth. Her bright teeth snapped. "You can always replace this one." Her face darkened, and her eyes flashed. "No, you already have."

"No! No!"

Loki caught Sigyn and held her tightly. "Don't let me go," she whispered through clenched teeth.

"What is this about?"

"Narvi's blood, the blood of the firstborn, is mine. I bought it."

"Sigyn, is this true?"

"We made a deal...this is how we survived." Sigyn moaned. She looked down at her hands, and up at her child trembling in the pale light. "I am so sorry, my son. I'm so, so sorry."

Loki pinned her arms tightly as she tore at her hair and rake her nails over her face and neck. "Stop this, woman! Stop this now! He still lives."

"You promised me twelve days, Angrboda! It has been three!" sobbed Sigyn. "Twelve days! It is the most sacred of numbers. Why would you violate it so?"

"Since when do I obey the rules? These mere formalities? I have one, I have taken the other, breaking our agreement. You will die in your husband's arms, then he will be mine and mine alone as our children lay waste to this Midgard plane."

Loki shuddered at the meaning behind her words. "What is this? Explain what happened?"

"You mean Sigyn hasn't told you?" Angrboda laughed. "But Sigyn, you have always been soon open, so honest, so unable to deceive. Has your character developed since your abandonment? Oh, glorious day! Loki, Loki, if only you knew. Once upon a very cold December, I found a woman with two children huddled in a falling down goat shed. The children were nearly dead and the mother as well. But I offered them help. I gave life and hope when they had none. And now, by the agreement of that night, so many Decembers ago, I claim Narvi for my own purposes. Sigyn, perhaps you'd like to discuss the fine print?"

"What is this story?"

Sigyn turned her sad, dark eyes upon her husband. "It was the first winter. I would not tell you how we survived because I made myself forget. Your return...the agreement..." She sobbed and hung her head, defeated. "The agreement was that, should you return, I had twelve days to defeat her children. Otherwise, she would unleash Ragnarok. That is how Fenruswulf walked free that night."

His let go of her in his shock and she tumbled limply to the ground.

"Mother! Mummy! Mummy!" Narvi screamed as Angrboda took advantage of his parents' distraction. She took the child by the head. With her free hand, she wrenched his entrails from him. The boy's screams split the cavern in half, creating a rift in the floor.

"Narvi! My son, my son!" Sigyn tried to leap towards him, to rescue her first born, but Loki pinned her tightly. She was smaller than Jane, now, she had shrunk so much.

"Narvi!"

She continued to scream his name. In the blink of an eye, her hair became white as snow and the tears resembled blood in the gloom. Loki held her tightly. She could feel his heart harden only to shatter, for his hold on her was desperate.

Angrboda threw the boy's body on the cavern floor. It bounced across the gap created by his screams only to come and lie near his parents. The witch stepped easily across the gap in the cave's floor and, with her free hand, picked up Loki. "I have waited so long for this. We shall enjoy tonight very much. Hela!"

The revolting woman climbed up from the gap. "Here, Mother."

"Have at her as you wish."

Hela cackled with glee.

Sigyn looked up. All the weariness of the last millennium revealed itself as she crawled to her son's lifeless body and held it close, rocking it and singing an old lullaby. Yet she sang it so sweetly that it seemed as if the very rocks wept for the destitute mother.

_Hush now, my darling, be still, love, don't cry..._

Loki struggled to escape from Angrboda's grasp, but she swung him about so that his head hit one of the rocks, stunning him. She threw him over her shoulder and disappeared into the darkness.

Hela stalked about Sigyn and the boy. Her prey was within her grasp at last. "At long last," she sang, hoping to drown out the sweet melody. "At long last, Sigyn Fosterling, you will enter my realm! You will be with your son again, Fosterling. You will see your brother, Baldr! You will even see Beowulf, your lover, again. I guess you were lonely all those years that Father was in Mother's bed. You'd like Beowulf's comfort again, wouldn't you? I seem to remember you two were quite good friends."

Sigyn continued to sing. Narvi's body lay limply in her arms, his blood staining her clothes.

Hela quickly tired of her game and pounced at her victim. Only to be caught by a very large hand. It caught her and held her tightly until she squeaked for mercy.

The Hulk grinned and held her close. She screamed in fear.

Others entered. Iron Man came in with a show of light and landed with a thump. He turned to Hela, who screamed and cowered, showing her beautiful side to his lights. "We'll deal with you later."

He walked over and placed a hand on Sigyn's shoulder. "Sigyn, where is the person who did this? Sigyn?" He groaned and added, "Odinsdaughter?"

"She's in shock," said Cap, who had flown in with Iron Man.

Thor landed and ran to his foster sister. "Sigyn—Jorð, no!" He knelt beside her placed his hand upon Narvi's forehead. He held her close and kissed her forehead. "I am sorry my sister."

She sobbed and buried her face in Thor's shoulder.

Cap jumped when he saw Hela. "You! Haven't we met before?"

"Many enter into my realm, and few leave," she said coyly.

He snapped his fingers. "I met you in Germany. You were on the battlefields, everywhere."

"And loving every minute of it," she snapped, jumping at him. The Hulk tightened his grasp and she squeaked. "The chaos, the blood, the lusts running rampant on every side. My father would have loved it if he had bothered to be there."

But when Thor turned his gaze upon her, she blanched. "T-T-Thor, it is good to see you again."

"Lying has never suited you. Where are your mother and Loki?"

"Mmmm..." She squealed when he lifted his hammer as if to strike. "Mother took him to Fenruswulf's cave. I don't know where exactly they are, but that is where she will go. Please, don't hurt me anymore. Haven't I suffered enough?"

Thor's eyes blazed, and he swelled with rage. "Did Loki have anything to do with this?"

She started to nod before thinking better of it. "No, he is innocent. This time. It was part of a deal Mother made with the witch over there." She turned a look of pure hatred upon Sigyn. "Even when he sated his lust upon Mother, we knew he was thinking of that one."

Sigyn finally was silent. The echoing drip of the water into the pools began again. The rocks lay wet and dark. The only sound was of breathing and the faint hum of the Iron Man suit.

At last Thor said, "Where did the cavern lie? When the legends ruled, where did the cavern stand?"

"Ask her; she's the expert." Hela cackled as she finally slipped from the Hulk's grasp and through the crack in the earth. It closed over her with a rumble and a hiss.

"I never thought I'd say this, but guess it's up to us to rescue your bratty brother, Thor," said Stark, a holographic map of the earth appearing.

"Sigyn," said Thor, kneeling beside her. "My sister, listen to me. Where is Angrboda? Where is the cave of Fenruswulf?"

"Where the land of the lotus-eaters and the caves of the dwarves meet," she muttered numbly. She looked so very old.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Las Vegas."

The Avengers turned and stared at Stark.

"What?" He shrugged. "Lotus-eaters is what my old mythology friends used to call the druggies back at college. And the only place richer than Switzerland is Las Vegas. Drugs, booze, and girls. If I was a homicidal maniac of a wolf with a few free decades to spend and money to spend it, I'd go to Vegas. Also, prostitution is legal, meaning no one would notice Angrboda's new sex slave."

"You're disgusting."

"You know what, Capsicle? I am calling Johnny Storm the minute this is all over. You have got to get out more."

"The Man of Iron's proposition is logical," said Thor, one hand still on Sigyn's shoulder.

Cap looked from one to the other. "Really, you're going to go along with this?"

"...Can anyone hear me?"

"Go ahead, Coulson," said Stark, putting up the holographic image of Coulson.

"We just had a series of strange events happen near Las Vegas. Buildings are collapsing, the weather is all over the place, it looks like something from an end of the world movie. Fury wants you boys to check it out."

"An end of the world movie?" Stark grinned at Captain America. "Or someone's having divine sex of a cosmic nature."

Steve scowled.

"We're on our way. Oh, and can you get someone to pick up Sigyn and her son." He sobered immediately. "Her son Narvi's dead."

"We can't find Vali. He was chatting up Natashia when suddenly he up and left. She said he looked pretty upset."

"She's probably confusing him with Hawkweye."

"Just get to Vegas and get this figured out."


	10. Twoo Wuv'

Loki panted and strained against the fetters holding him to the bed. Sweat ran over his naked chest and the sheets were drenched with his blood. But even the strength of an immortal could not break the bonds forged in a relation's blood. No matter what size or shape or form he transformed into, he could not escape.

Angrboda, looking much smaller, settled on the bed beside him. "You smell of blood and fear," she purred, placing her hand over his heart. "It's not too different from when we first coupled."

"Other than the small detail that I asked you to tie me up then, it's nearly exactly the same," he grunted, his body tense. No silver tongue could get him out of this situation.

She kissed him, her hands running over his chest and down his arms. "When was the last time you were violated, instead of the one violating?"

"The conception of Sleipnir," he gasped, struggling as her hands wandered lower. How could he have thought himself in love with this woman? Then he remembered seeing her as the, well, 'kinky' version of Sigyn. There had seemed no difference. "That was not exactly a planned pregnancy."

She laughed but snarled when there was a knock at the door. "What?"

"Mother, please try not to destroy the building."

"It's a bit late for anything like that, dear. Now, leave Mummy and Daddy alone. We need to have a discussion of an adult nature."

Barton grumbled as he adjusted his tuxedo. "Why did it have to be me?"

"Because a tux makes you look like a penguin and we all know how much you love birds," said Stark. "And we didn't want her taking Capsicle as her love hostage, either. Besides, Natashia thinks you look hot."

"You don't think I can handle a giantess?"

"Cool it, Cap," said Barton over the com. "I don't know if anyone could handle her, if half of what you've said is true."

He knocked on the door. It was opened by an exceptionally hairy man in evening wear. "Excuse me, Mr. Wulf?"

The man growled and sniffed deeply. "What?"

Hawkeye had the arrow notched and aimed directly at the man's face before a thought could pass. "So, here's the deal. I'm toting a weapon from the Neolithic period, running with a crazy bunch of freaks who think they're saving the world, and we're supposed to rescue one of the guy's kid brother. So if you could step aside, that'd be great."

The man growled even more deeply but stepped aside.

"Thank you." Hawkeye relaxed the bow and stepped inside. "I'm in and—"

Fenruswulf changed to his natural form and jumped on the younger man, teeth and claws at the ready.

Such would have been the end of Hawkeye if two things had not happened simultaneously.

First, Fenruswulf stopped and howled. It shook the building and the very earth. The skies rained down, drowning Las Vegas in mud.

Secondly, the Hulk knocked down the door and knocked Fenruswulf out the window, where he fell more than eighty stories.

"Hulk, go get 'im," said Stark.

The Hulk grinned with pleasure and followed the wolf by the same route.

An overly tall but beautiful woman opened the door to the bedroom, clutching a silk robe about her. "What is this commotion? Who are y—?"

She recognized them at once and slammed the door shut.

Captain America ran at it and tried to knock down the door. "I can't get it open. Barton's down. Thor, Stark, where are you?"

Thor flew in by the window and smashed through the door. "Spells are very hard to break by ordinary means."

Stark flew in and pulled a med kit from his suit. "Hold on Barton; we'll get you fixed up." He muttered curses under his breath as he stabilized Hawkeye.

In the bedroom, Angrboda crouched over her prize like a she-wolf.

Captain America stood transfixed by her beauty. It was the cruelest of beauties, surpassing even the legendary cruel beauty of the Snow White's step-mother. He could not move.

Thor pushed his way past his frozen friend and threw his hammer at the giantess. "Your tricks do not work on me, witch!"

"Oh, Thor, will you always fall for that one?" she laughed, having easily avoided the hammer.

She spun her hand in the air and Thor lay stunned on the ground, his hammer atop his chest. She chuckled and walked over to Captain America. "Sweeting," she ran her hand smoothly down his chest, "kill the good god of thunder, please?"

"Not so fast," said Iron Man. He flipped up the mask and whistled. "Hello, gorgeous!"

Angrboda smiled seductively and waltzed over to him. She lay a finger on his cheek and he remained frozen with the idiotic smile on his face. "Now, you're all frozen. But humour a minor monologue. You believe that men can rule and save the world. But I've just undone what many have called the Earth's Mightiest Heroes; undone by the presence of one woman and your own lusts running out of control. I hardly think this bodes well for the pro-masculine dominance party."

The lights flickered and bright beam of light hit the ground. Frigg and Sif appeared, supporting Sigyn between them. Each one held one of Sigyn's hands. Sif held a naked sword in front of her foster-sister. "It is your duty."

"When the men fail, and they usually do when a woman is concerned," Frigg sniffed, "it becomes the woman's responsibility to clean up after them."

"As usual," said Sif. "Now take the sword and end this."

Her face blotchy from the tears and bloody from where she was torn, Sigyn looked anything but the romanticized warrior princess. But she took the sword and faced the giantess. Her stature was returning, slowly, but her hair was tied back in a knot. It was a pure white.

"The contract has yet to fully expire," gasped Angrboda. "How did you two return?"

"You broke the contract, making any conditions null and void," snapped Sif.

"Silence, daughter," said Frigg. "This is your sister's battle."

"She won't win; she's too weak."

_Anger is the second stage of grief. _Sigyn's hands tightened about the handle of the blade. _And you shall feel my anger, woman. After all, we are both mothers._

The giantess and Sigyn circled each other. Every so often, one would test the other's defences, only to snap back. Using the sword as a prop, Sigyn threw her legs into the air and caught the giantess' arm and shoulder. It snapped with a mighty _crack!_

The witch fell to the ground but swept Sigyn's feet from beneath her. The sword was kicked aside. Using her good arm, Angrboda pushed her opponent's head into the carpet. "I will squeeze the life out of you like I did to your other son. I killed Vali before I even took Narvi. It was easy, so very easy. Your younger son was ruled by his lusts, just as his father before him. And I swear, I will be the one to come out victorious in this. I have taken everything you hold dear. What do you have left, Sigyn, _Princess_?"

Sigyn tried to break free.

Sif moved to intervene, but Frigg caught her arm. "No, stop. This is her battle. Those who believe they have nothing left to lose are truly the most dangerous. It would be more dangerous for all to interrupt."

Angrboda caught Sigyn's hair and pulled her to the bed where Loki lay. "You remember the trick. He taught you first." Wincing, she took Sigyn's hand with her own and thrust it into Loki's chest.

He screamed in agony Old injuries, ancient ones, many long forgotten, reappeared and bled anew. "What have you done to me?"

Angrboda twisted Sigyn's hand. "Let no deed, for good or for ill, go unpunished. Let me introduce you to what power feels like. And I say let him never die!"

Sigyn looked as she might be sick. _I cannot kill him._

"Silence your screaming, Husband," Angrboda snarled. "In the past were you truly wicked or merely seeking attention?" She twisted Sigyn's hand, causing their husband to nearly pass out.

"This is what the end has come to. My last good deed," said Angroboda. "Squeeze it. Feel the power that comes from holding him in such a position. You can do anything to him now. Does it not feel wonderful to have such power?"

_It feels like the perfect set up._

Fighting the pain, Sigyn plunged her free hand into Angrboda's chest. Her eyes widened. _What? Where is it? Where is your heart?_

"Stupid girl." Angrboda let Sigyn fall to the ground. "Do you think I would keep my heart where everyone else does?"

Sigyn leapt to her feet. _That is not your role, and that is not your line._

"Who do you think gave it to them? They weren't too far off that the characters of legend should not still be walking amongst the mortals."

_They're not so stupid._

Sif bounced on the balls of her feet. "Mother, please, may I now?"

Frigg studied Angrboda. "No. She is no longer the defenceless foster-child you once knew."

Angrboda rolled her eyes.

Frigg smiled.

In that moment, Sigyn caught up her sword and raised it high. _Off with your head!_

The head did not roll far from the body. Angrboda's true form emerged: tall, blue, gangly...her red eyes stared unseeingly for a moment before her body turned to ash and floated out the window.

The little blood remaining burned a hole in the carpet and a foul stench rose from it.

Sigyn rested against the sword, gasping. The lines in her face were slowly fading, and she stood taller. _Let there be peace_.

Stark and Captain America were released from their imprisonment. Thor continued to flail under his hammer.

"Thor, stop your bleating; you resemble a beached whale," scolded his mother. "Sif, rescue your husband."

Sif snorted in laughter. "I like him this way. He can't go chasing after mortals this way."

"Woman, undo this magic now," snapped Thor.

"Thor!" said Frigg.

He glared at Sif until she pulled him out from under the hammer.

"And that's what you get for allowing an attractive woman to distract you from what's around you," said his mother.

"It's not just women that distract him," said Sif, remembering the incident of the giant's glove. "I think all the intelligence genes missed him and went straight to his brother."

"Yes, but I received the good looks," Thor proclaimed, exhibiting the best of male posturing. But he kissed the wife of his youth in thanks. He looked down at Loki, still tied to the bed. "Odin's beard, Brother, I never thought to see you so."

"Just let me loose," he gasped, tangled up in the sheet. The noose was cutting into his neck and a thin line of red encircled it. "Quickly!"

Sif handed Thor her knife and he cut his brother loose. Except the bonds continued to reattach themselves.

"Sorcery."

"A first-rate deduction if I ever I heard one," said Sif.

"Be quiet, wife. Mother, could you?"

Frigg took care to step around the burned spot on the rug. "Loki, what did I tell you as a child about the consequences of your actions?"

He grunted. "Mother, please, now is not the time."

She deftly began untying the knots, muttering counterspells under her breath. They would not untie for her, though they would loosen. "Ah, well planned, Angrboda. Now, Loki, before I give you the answer to the riddle on how to be freed, I will have you answer my question. Do not make me repeat it."

"You always said that the consequences can carry much further than any can foresee." He groaned in pain as the bonds tightened again.

Sif tried to undo a knot at his ankle. "What are these made out of?"

Loki struggled for breath, as the cord still strangled him. "They are—what she—harvested from Narvi in the cave. They cannot be cut or destroyed."

The sound of a loud commotion echoed throughout the city. A hologram popped up on Iron Man's arm. "Talk to me."

"Hulk's doing some pretty severe damage while chasing the wolf," said Hill. "Fury wants to know if you'd consider doing your job and going and stopping it and him before anyone actually dies."

"We're on our way. Have emergency services notified. Madames, it's been a pleasure."

Frigg nodded regally as Iron Man flew off, Captain America clinging to him for a ride. "Thor, go with them. You will know how best to recapture Fenruswulf."

Thor bowed to his mother before shooting out through the broken window.

Frigg turned to her youngest son. "Now, only one person can free you. And it must be a freewill offering."

"Just—tell me—Mother!"

She raised an eyebrow.

The answer dawned upon Loki. He turned to Sigyn. "Please—you saved—me once...Save me again?"

He was so very pale, and his lips held tinges of blue. "Sigyn, please!"

Frigg addressed her daughter. "What did I tell you about holding grudges?"

Sigyn raised an eyebrow.

Sif clicked her tongue at Loki. "Remember, this is all your fault, as always."

Without a word or thought, Sigyn went and stood by the bed. She dipped her finger in the blood which pooled about him.

"Sigyn, please..."

Slowly but deftly, she untied the knots, beginning with the one at his left ankle.

"Not there, woman!"

"I'd suggest not criticizing your rescuer," said Sif.

"Daughter!"

"Mother, he is the one who shaved my head for a lark and sold my hair to the Jutun because he could. Don't give me that look."

"It was not hard to find out what exactly the two of you were doing, especially as Ull, your son born not too long after the incident, looks nothing like Thor."

Sif glared at the queen, but remained silent.

Sigyn finally had undone all the knots but the one holding the cord about his throat. _Never forget this, Lopt_.

The last knot fell free.

Loki sat up slowly, making sure the sheet covered his middle.

"My son, now is not the time to be maidenly."

"Mother, it was Thor who dressed up as Freyja, not I, remember?" He tried to laugh but it ended up as a strangled sob. He looked to Sigyn. "My wife?"

_Our son_.She covered her face with her hands, staining her face with his blood. _Our sons._

He looked at the bonds which had bound him. They lay neatly in a pile. He wrapped the bloody sheet more securely about him and gathered the cords in his hand. "Come with me."

When Sigyn opened her eyes, they were back in the cave. Narvi's broken body lay in front of them.

Carefully, Loki arranged the organs in his son's body. With a conjured magic needle and thread, he sewed the body back up. Then he looked to his wife and, sadly, smiled before placing his mouth over his son's and breathing.

He breathed for so long that the Fenruswulf lay bound again in the Lost Isles before Loki finished the first breath.

In the time of the second breath, the trees shook their fall colours, gained their winter stillness, and were just putting out new buds when he stopped.

He began to draw a final breath when Sigyn touched his arm. _Stop_. _You will kill yourself with a third._

"He lost his life for my mischiefs. This is my choice, Sigyn. Let me die saving my son." He took her hand and pressed his lips to it. "Let me redeem myself. Please."

His last words were so quiet, the cavern did not even echo.

_It was my mistake. Both the name and the blood on that scroll belong to Sigyn, Lokiswife._

"You mean this one?"

The scroll appeared form nowhere, unrolling suddenly from his hand. "Look closely and you will see both name and blood have been changed. It now reads Loki Laufeyson. Now, let me bear this burden."

_I will not let you be the hero! _She pushed him aside to lower her mouth to their son's.

"My apologies, dearest," he said, pinching the nerve in her neck. "But there is still yet another who you must care for."

She gracefully collapsed into his arms, and he gently kissed her before drawing a deep breath and giving their son the third and final breath necessary to revive him.

And in the time of that breath, love was unlocked in the heart and mind of every person of the Midgard. Spring lasted for a year and a day, and there was peace as had been unknown since the dawn of time.

Do you understand yet, or what more?

_~Voluspa_


	11. A Happier Time with Happier Memories

Hwat! Sorry it's been a while. Dead week and finals and recovering from "dying" (thrice) in a reenactment of the Battle of Maldon (the Vikings won, again) kept me from getting this up. I should be posting more regularly from here out. Enjoy the second part of "Wife of Lopt", and please, leave a comment and anything you'd like to see touched on. Cheers!

About his intelligence, no man should be boastful...

No better burden can a man carry on the road

than a store of common sense...

_~Sayings of the High One_

Sigyn awoke to a light, airy room. The roof soared above her. A waterfall was not far away and birds chased each other through the open rooms. The gold in the walls held her attention. _Home. I am home._

Slowly, she rose up in her bed. A woman in white ran over to her. "Please, continue to lie still. The Healer will be along soon."

"Where—" She touched her throat. The curse had been broken. "Where are my sons? My husband?"

"Two still slumber, as you should as well," said the Sister, helping Sigyn lie back down in a comfortable position. "Now," she touched Sigyn's head, "go back to sleep. There is much to do before you have fully recovered."

As Sigyn drifted off, she had the presence to ask, "Where am I?"

"You are back in Asgard, the Fortress of the Æsir, little one," said a deep voice.

"All-Father," she whispered before drifting off into a deep, dreamless sleep.

As the last of his life force entered the still body of his son, Loki felt the blackness rising. He would feast with Baldr in Hela's halls for eternity. Another would herald the coming of Ragnarok.

His eyes opened. He was in a garden, dressed in the simple trousers and tunic of his youth. It was home, Asgard; nothing in any of the Nine Realms bloomed as the flowers of Asgard did. A bird chirped to its mate overhead before flying off to give chase in the ritualized dance. Loki plucked a red flower with soft, heavy petals and turned it about in his hands, wishing to present it to Sigyn, wishing to make up for all the wasted time. He breathed deeply of the flower's scent, remembering how she would use the water of the flower to bathe in.

"I'm over here, silly," she shrieked, the flowers brightening at her laughter.

He looked over the hedge and watched Sigyn and Sif practice their sword technique.

"You're doing it wrong," scolded Sif, her brow knitted in concentration.

"So what if I am?" Sigyn lifted her nose in the air and began to speak in a pompous manner, her strikes becoming increasingly exaggerated. Her hair hung in a single braid down her back, and her dress was the pale colour of a woman yet unmatched. "I'm going to marry a handsome prince and live happily ever after. He shall be my protector, and I shall never need to dirty my hands on a sword or any form of warfare again."

"You speak of a fairy tale," said Sif. Her hair was looped practically about her head, and her tunic hung to her bare knees. Her boots had little gold tips on them. "And what do you see for my future, foster-sister?"

"A mild man who will let you fight alongside Thor and his soldiers. 'T is a pity Bragi is happily married, for I think you would find a man like he very much to your liking."

Sif rolled her eyes as Sigyn collapsed into giggles. "You're just as likely to marry the stable boy as a prince. Where is the All-Father to find you a prince?"

"If you believe the stories, there are young, handsome princes under every bush and outside every wall."

"Aye, as well as giants and ogres."

Sif looked at the row of hedges and Loki instinctively ducked, though he knew they could not see him. At their exchange, he knew where, and more importantly, when, they were. It was the summer when he began his courtship for Sigyn. He felt a clenching in his belly, from joy or fear, he knew not.

"Brother, what are you—?"

Loki yanked Thor down behind the hedge. "Silence! Do you want them to see us?"

Thor poked his head over the hedge before Loki yanked him down again. "Truly?" he laughed, his eyes alight with joy. "Truly, you love the nameless daughter? The foster-child? Brother, I would never have believed it of you. Love seems so far from your silver tongue."

"And now you will announce your intent for Sif," Loki muttered, removing himself from the scene as the memory continued to play forth. He separated himself from the memory enough to follow the echo of himself as it followed Sif and Sigyn back to their chambers. It transformed into a mouse, creeping along the walls, and nearly missing being squished by the door.

Sif immediately removed her leather boots and various armaments before diving into the pool. "Come, sister. The water is excellent." He long, golden hair escaped from its braid.

Sigyn stripped off her outer garments but left the thin underkirtle on as she gracefully slipped into the water. "This is divine," she sighed, floating on her back. Will you help me undo my braid?"

Their hair mingled as they floated in the water, sometimes talking, sometimes silent. They watched as the sky turned from summer blue to purple to black. The great stars shone through the open roof.

"We must ready ourselves for the meal," said Sif at long last, flicking water at her sister.

"Why hurry?" Sigyn idly waved her arms through the water. "It will continue until morning."

"You know why! Thor and his Warriors Three will consume the entire feast if we do not make it there in time." She swam to the end and back, her muscles rippling.

Sigyn dipped under the water before coming up, dripping. Her kirtle clung to her young body and both Lokis felt the stirring of lust for her. "You want to be there before Thor is drunk, is that it?"

"Thor is not the only eligible young man who will be there tonight." Sif dried her face with a towel. "You heard how last week he drank so much from Utgarda-Loki's cup as to create tides!"

"An exaggeration if there was. He also claimed to wrestle a woman they named Old Age."

"If Thor admits even a hint of not having completely destroyed an opponent, then it must be true."

"Listen to you defending him. Does love run so deeply?"

The doors swung open to admit Freyja. Her long hair, tinted a pale blue tonight, was ornately arranged, and her strange violet eyes were alit with excitement. "You two are long past due for your appearance at the feast! Ready yourselves quickly. I heard from Brunhilde that there is to be a special guest tonight. And there may yet be an announcement of a betrothal as well."

"Two, if Father is to have his way," snorted Sif, stepping out of the pool and wringing the excess water from her hair.

Freyja took the girl's hair and dried it quickly with a towel. "Sigyn, come along."

"The water is better," said Sigyn, lowering herself until her chin touched the water's surface. "Water brings both peace and life in a way that land cannot."

"My father would agree with you. But it is time for you to return to the land."

In their chamber, the two women dressed. As the maids prepared their hair, Sigyn's slim shoulders began to shake with weeping.

"My apologies, Lady Sigyn," cried her maid, dropping the comb in distress. "Did I pull your hair? Did a pin jab you?"

Freyja picked up the comb from the floor. "Both of you, let us to be. You as well, Sif. You are finished enough." She made sure the maids were gone before undoing the girl's work on Sigyn's hair and beginning again. Her strong, deft hands managed the fine hair, arranging them in complex braids and pinnings. "Is it Forseti's presence that makes you weep?"

Tears continued to run down Sigyn's face. "I know that he presented his suit for my hand in marriage; you do not have to pretend not to know. I am not the child many believe me to be."

"Would a marriage with him be so terrible? As a foster child, you can do much worse." Freyja wove a deep green ribbon, a colour of magic, through the pale hair.

"I could not love him."

"Do you love anyone?"

Sigyn's lips clamped shut as Freyja secured the hair behind one ear.

Freyja placed a fresh flower behind Sigyn's ear and squeezed the girl's shoulder reassuringly. "Do not be afraid of tonight. Frigg has prophesied good things. Now, dry your eyes and let us reapply your face paint."

She washed her face and carefully applied the paints and powders to darken her eyes and redden her cheeks. The fresh paint hid most of the tear trails.

Freyja picked up a beautifully carved box. "Forseti sent this for you. He requests that you would wear it tonight."

Sigyn stroked the cloth inside the box. "Does the Son of Baldr fear his suit is threatened that he sends such a fine gift?"

"Odin swore that he would never make you marry anyone who you did not love."

"Unless a war is at stake," Sigyn muttered rebelliously, slipping into the gown.

Loki left the memory, angry that the son of Baldr would dare raise his eyes to one so fair as Sigyn. But he had made his revenge very sweet. It was for this slight that he made it so one creature alone would refuse to mourn Baldr's passing.

He saw a shadow of Sigyn disappear into another memory; he followed, creeping along close behind. Once again, the echo of himself, for all memories are merely echoes, appeared in a third part. But this one kept to the shadows as he stalked her.

Loki studied the shadow closely. Odin's Beard! Had he really been that young?

His attention turned back to Sigyn. She slipped her dainty feet into the fountain and let the rich fabric float on the water. She gave a mighty sigh and bowed her head, exposing her lovely neck to the moon.

The sounds of the feast carried into the night. Thor's mighty laugh especially could be heard over the many voices. He would be very drunk tonight; perhaps...yes, the echo of Loki chuckled, yes, he would do such a jest. But not until after dealing with Sigyn.

The Echo-Loki, leaning against the tree, looked up and made himself invisible at the sound of heavy footsteps. It was Forseti, a dark blond man in the prime of life with rings on his muscular arms and rings on his fingers. He stepped into the moonlight. "Sigyn?"

She looked up and quickly stepped from the water. "Lord Forseti, excuse me. I did not hear you."

"What were you doing just now?"

"I-I required a moment's respite from the company within. It is overwhelming. There are so many people, which leads to a great deal of noise..." She flinched away as he reached to tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

His hand casually brushed her collarbone and Loki resisted the urge to smash the memory. He continued to let it flow, though.

Sigyn pushed away Forseti's hand, her fine brows knit. "Do not be so bold, good sir. I am not completely without agency as to be completely helpless."

He took her by the chin and kissed her, gently. "Lady Sigyn," he purred, "what do you have to fear from me? I am my father's son."

"A good father does not make a good son, especially when drink is at play." She wrinkled her nose at the smell of his breath. "You are angry. And very drunk. Let me return, and I will speak of this to no—"

He caught her small wrists with one of his very large hands and held the base of her neck firmly with the other. "Scream for me."

"You are drunk!"

"Scream for me, or I will hurt you," he said, yanking her face to face him. "Scream!"

A strangled sound escaped from her throat.

"Scream, wench!"

"I c-c-can't."

"Everyone is inside; there is no one to hear you," he said, shoving her the darkness of the trees. "I will make you scream, for pain and for pleasure."

She would have fallen save for Echo-Loki catching her, removing himself from the shadows. "Lady Sigyn."

Even in the pale moonlight, it was possible to see Forseti's face flush. "Cousin Loki, what are you doing away from the feast?"

The Trickster's eyes glowed in the moonlight. "I should ask you the same question. Your love of a good feast and the women who usually accompany such events is well known across the cosmos."

Forseti folded his arms across his chest. "You are one to speak so. Or would you be seeking out the men whose most secret identities remain are known only to those who would slink along the corridors and listen at doors? Perhaps you still prefer horses? If you're in the mood for breeding, I could use a few more for my stable."

Loki smiled sweetly, though the lines about his eyes tightened. "I have an excellent taste for beauty. Such as this lovely gown you wear, Lady Sigyn. I heard it was a gift from a suitor."

"She ruined it, a grave insult to the giver."

"If I gave her such a gown, I would sooner ruin it myself in my haste to remove it again," Loki said, never breaking eye-contact with Sigyn.

"I am no prize to be fought over between two snarling dogs. Let me be, both of you." Her voice shook as she looked from one to the other before swiftly making her way back to the feast, her head bowed and her arms wrapped about herself.

Forseti's nostrils flared. "You had to frighten her away."

Loki lifted his head and shrugged. "I was not the one angered merely because she wet the dress in a pool of water."

"That was no mere dress. The fabric was woven of first snowfall and sprinkled with the dust of what remains of Otter's Ransom. My mother dyed it with the first green of spring that comes on the Eastern Slopes. And she let it lie in the water like it was merely a gown of linen."

Loki's voice deepened in attempt to control himself. "Perhaps you should have communicated the importance of the dress and its lineage before growing angry with her."

"I will see you ruined before you can touch a single hair on her head," said Forseti.

"You mean the one that just transferred itself to my clothing?" He held up a long, golden hair and pulled at it until it snapped.

Forseti threw himself at Loki, knocking them both into the fountain. "You monster!" He punched Loki repeatedly. "You would dare violate a woman! You would remove a part of her without her even knowing it?"

Loki yelped as Forseti lifted him high in the air. "I was not the one who kissed her—" he landed on the ground, "without her permission," he groaned, the air escaping from him. He blocked Forseti's next assault and threw the younger man to the ground. "Will you never learn?"

"I did." Forseti's grin faded as his features grew pale and his body limp.

"Well, then, Laufeyson."

Loki looked about him and saw the entirety of the Norse pantheon stood about, watching. He stood slowly and chuckled. "I suppose there is nothing to be said in my defence."

Baldr's hands clenched, and his brow was stormy. "You would dare lay a hand on my son! You monster."

A woman's voice cried, "Baldr, contain yourself!"

The White One turned to his wife as she pushed her way through the crowd. "Nanna, he assaulted our son."

Nanna's large brown eyes flashed and the Áss stepped away from her. She held a protective arm about Sigyn. "I have heard Sigyn's story, and Loki is not to blame. Not this once." She held up a hand to quiet the Æsir. "Yes, for once, the son of Laufey stands innocent. And there will be justice done tonight. Our son has inherited too much of your pride, Odinson."

"You overstep yourself, woman."

She flew at him, drawing short when she saw him flinch. "_You_ overstep yourself, _husband_. My role is to give counsel and dispense justice. Let our son learn his lesson."

"Not here, wife. Not in front of everyone."

She pulled her son to his feet by the collar of his robe. His handsome face was bloodied and covered with the same mud as his drenched robe. "Neither of you will not listen to me in private, then let us take our petition to a higher court: We stand in council, let us decide. What is to be Forseti's punishment for attempting to force his attentions upon another, for his pride, and for assaulting an elder?"

None spoke. The crickets began to chirp again.

Loki shivered as an owl hooted. His favourite part, one of his favourite memories, the beginning of all that was best in his life, began...

"Let him dispense the justice he has denied others."

...here.


	12. A Snarling of the Threads of Fate

Days later, the Matron pronounced Loki free to leave the Healing Rooms. "Your life is a miracle," she said, disapproving. "Use this one wisely."

He nodded and left the room carefully, leaning heavily on a gold handled cane.

Outside the rooms, Thor stood quickly from a bench. He laughed. "You look old with a cane, brother. Shall we fetch you a wheeled chair as they use in the Midgard hospitals?"

"If need be, I'll turn myself into a mouse and make my sons carry me. It is their responsibility to support me in my old age."

"I do not think they would appreciate introducing an old grey mouse as their father."

"Anything is preferable to my time as a filly."

Thor grimaced at the memory. They walked through the halls of Asgard in silence, only speaking to return greetings of those they met.

In a forgotten corner of the palace, Loki stopped before a set of doors and leaned on his cane even more. "I do not know if I have the strength to do this."

"It has been three days since they let her go. She will have adjusted."

"I only hope she has not found certain items."

"The hairpins of your various lovers?"

Loki's face turned crimson. "I would never desecrate our marriage bed so. Outside the bed itself is another matter, but I have kept these rooms sacred to Sigyn's memory."

Thor sobered. "And how will the story go this time? Once again, you have been released into Sigyn's care, just as when you began her courtship. We all heard when you renewed your vows. Nature seemed not to know what to do when your hearts were reunited."

"I love her; I am weak, and I love her."

He placed his hand on the doors and entered as a crash and a scream filled the room. "What is going on here?" he thundered.

The boys froze. Vali sat atop Narvi, his arm frozen in mid-air. Blood poured from Narvi's nose, and his hips were shifted in preparation to flip his brother off of him.

Loki carefully made his way through the minefield of pillows, wooden toys, and blocks scattered about the floor.

The boys separated and stood before their father.

"What happened in here?"

"We were playing," said Narvi.

Vali said, "We were recreating the fight between Beowulf and the dragon. We built the dragon's cave, and I was Beowulf because the dragon's supposed to be old—"

"And I caught him in the eye when throwing my 'flames' at him."

"Why?" said Loki.

"Because," Vali scuffed his toe against the ground, "I dodged too late."

Loki tried not to smile. It was good to see his children playing again, to have their things scattered about. But he would not allow them to grow into the monsters their notorious siblings had become.

Vali blinked back tears, but a few slid down his baby cheeks. "Are you mad, Papa?"

Loki lowered himself to the floor and sat crossed legged. "Never raise your hand against your brother. And I do speak from knowledge. I fought your uncles many times. Feuds within families are always the ugliest."

The boys nodded, and their father smiled. "Now, where were you when I entered?"

Narvi said, "Well, Vali destroyed my cave, so I don't know—Mum!"

Sigyn's long hair was knotted at the back of her head, and she wore a long tunic and leggings of green. Her slippers were covered in dust. "What happened in here?"

"We were fighting," said Vali.

"Papa already talked to us." Narvi looked at the blood staining his shirt.

Their mother sighed and ran her thumb across the gash over Vali's eye and touched Narvi's nose. Their injuries healed nearly instantly, but the blood remained.

"Go and get cleaned up," she said, smiling at them. "I will not punish you this time, but you need to remember to be careful with each other."

They ran out, crying, "Yes, Mum!"

"And remember to place your shirts in cold water!" She smiled sadly.

Loki pulled himself up. "How much do they remember?"

"Very little; it is little more than a dream, or a dream of a dream. And I would rather it stayed that way."

"They will not learn the truth from me."

"Directly or indirectly, I hope," she said drily.

He brushed dust and remnants of sticky webbing from her clothes and hair. "You are a mess, my dear. Shall I assist you in a bath?"

"I think now is better suited to speak of other things. I was doing an inventory of things in our storage rooms. It really is no different from the garages and attics many humans have, filled with things that we will never need again. But I noticed a little door in the wall, and I found many things which should not have been there."

She held out her hand. Loki's tongue ran dry and clove to the roof of his mouth. She held the remains of a pot. Through the thick dust, he could just see the remains of hastily engraved charms.

Sigyn placed the remains on the table and sat down. She sighed heavily. "I shouldn't need to ask."

"It was once, when the Assembly fled from the conflict of the Conversion. They would not go back for you, and I needed to protect you. I couldn't leave you there undefended. I did what I knew would be effective."

She took a shard in her hands and turned it about, studying it. "You swore you would renounce your dark magic."

"I did. Sigyn," he sat down beside her, "from the day I swore my love to you to the day you were taken, I did not touch dark magic. I engaged only in mild tricks and illusions. In my desperation, I turned to it because I did not have you to anchor me."

"So this is my fault?"

"No! I did not hold tightly enough to you when they took me from that cave. Otherwise, you would not have been left."

"Is that what you remember? I let go of you to find the boys."

"Why? Did you not think our family—"

"Our _foster_ family, as so many are fond of reminding me."

He chewed his lower lip. Her bitterness was too like his own for comfort. "The boys are recognized as Æsir; they would have cared for them. What are you not telling me?"

"What price did you pay for this black magic?"

"Everything. I spun away into complete madness." He rested an elbow on the table and played with a shard. "It consumed me, until I could hardly remember your names. My pain was dulled, and it cost me everything."

He set down the shard and looked at the room about them. It looked lived in once again, and smelled of fresh air. "I sealed these rooms."

They listened to Vali and Narvi splash each other with water in another room. Their shrieks of laughter echoed through the apartment. The lights seemed to shine a little brighter.

Sigyn rubbed her eyes, creating black smudges. "Stop spinning the truth. Things are tricky enough."

"You always said truth is trickiest."

"I would wish not this tricky. I dread confronting Odin and Frigg."

"If you are lucky, he will simply disappear into Odin-sleep."

She scoffed. "It would be fortunate for him to not fall into sleep, for my rage will only grow the longer he avoids me."

"And myself?" He rested his elbows on his knees. "Where do I stand before you?"

"I do not know." She rose from the table and sought their sons to bundle them in to bed.

He could feel the pot shards taunting him, reminding him of his sins. If only Sigyn's memories had been altered as well, but that was not his power.

The next morning, Sigyn waited for Loki and their sons to leave for the day before rising from the comfortable bed. It had aged beautifully, and the peace of their initial marriage blessing still hovered above it, so that they had made sweet love the night before.

As she readied herself for the day, Sif surprised her with a visit.

Sigyn hesitated before letting her sister in. "Frigg sent you."

"Aye," said Sif, stepping in and going straight to the bedroom. "Finish your preparations. I wish merely to speak."

"You will not dissuade me."

"That's not why I'm here."

Sigyn shook her head, but continued pinning her hair up. "Frigg is worried about my confronting him?"

"Why would she not be? It cannot end well for either you, and there is something deeper which frightens her."

Sigyn pinned the last bits of hair back. She studied herself in the mirror and slipped a _torque_ about her neck, only to shake her head. Instead, a soft necklace of pearls encircled her throat with small drop earrings. The ring given by Loki as a wedding pledge sparkled from her finger. "It is an issue which will only fester if left to its own devices. I will not share in Loki's bitterness." She turned about. "How do I look?"

She spun in a slow circle, displaying her golden gown with the embroidered green under-dress. The sleeves flared about her elbows, giving freedom of movement.

"I think you look worried," said Sif. She sat on the edge of the bed with her legs crossed. "I would say not to worry about your costume, but, well."

"I have always been the All-Father's pet; I know." Sigyn studied herself in the mirror, studying the lines about her eyes and mouth and her sunken cheeks. "I look so old and wasted."

"Have you not eaten of Idunn's apples yet?"

"They tried, the first night after returning. It made me vomit for hours afterwards, and the Matron said to wait nine nights before attempting again."

"Which would be today? Tomorrow."

"Tomorrow." Sigyn sat quickly on a stool, her skirts pooling about her. "This is folly, complete and utter folly. I cannot even sway my husband for anything; why should I be able to confront Odin?"

Sif shrugged her shoulders. "What would you have me answer? I have no head for diplomacy, and Loki has won no favour recently, making your case all the harder."

Sigyn stood quickly. "Wish me luck, sister. I will need it." She marched out of the room, her back straight and head lifted. Her hair pulled at her scalp.

_Cut loose_._..Let it go...It will be so much easier..._

She stopped and looked around. A group of three Æsir children walked past her, speaking in strangely quiet tones, as if muted. The colours shifted about her, and she grasped a pillar beside her, attempting to control her breathing.

"Lady Sigyn, may I help you?"

It was Tyr. He extended his one hand, his left hand, towards her. "Are you well?"

"Thank you, my lord," she said. "I seek a wisdom which I doubt any can give me."

"I think you have more wisdom than you realize," he said. But his hooded grey eyes remained worried. "Whatever you do, practice caution. Do not be hasty."

"Perhaps a little haste would do me well," she said.

"You go to confront Odin."

She inclined her head, the earrings brushing her jaw line.

"Then let me give you a word of advice, my dear: he will manipulate you into hating Loki. He knows how similar they are and he resents having his sins made so clear. He usurped the authority Loki and I once shared amongst the smaller tribes, and will see that no one undoes his until the Ragnarok."

"Your words have not been in vain," Sigyn said. She curtsied and made her way to the garden where she knew Odin and Frigg to be.

Frigg's brow clouded upon seeing her, and Odin's fingers began to tap the table.

"Sigyn, dear," said Frigg, embracing her. "Please, tread cautiously."

Sigyn returned the embrace fiercely, drawing strength from her role model. "I am afraid I must speak with the All-Father alone."

Frigg released her daughter. "I wish you luck," she whispered before leaving.

It was quiet in the garden. Even the songbirds had stilled after the tension in the air.

At last, Sigyn said, "I have heard even Heimdall could not find the boys and myself. I heard that you forbid the opening of the Bifroöst when Loki begged to return and find us. Would you care to explain yourself, Ygg?"

"You would name me Destroyer?"

She smiled maliciously. "There are many other, less pleasant names I can recall, such as those which remark on your less than heroic tactics in the past."

Odin sighed and rested against the table. "We did not use to be contention." He rose and walked down a path.

Sigyn gathered her skirts in her hands and hurried after him. "You did not place me in situations where I thought it worthwhile to contend with you. My time away has only furthered my anger against you. I have had one thousand years, many lifetimes, to reflect on who was to blame for the sufferings and humiliation. Did you hope to see me violated at the hands of the mortals?"

"Do you share in Loki's bitterness as well? Shall I have to place your name as one to be destroyed during the—" he spat "—the Ragnarok?"

"Will it matter? You will be dead, and this generation of the Assembly as well. I think it makes no difference."

They passed the fountain where Forseti had made his advances against her. Odin stopped, and Sigyn ignored the tightening in her chest. He chose this spot specifically. Loki would not come to her rescue this time.

"I have allowed you too much freedom."

"You rejected me! As you rejected Loki when he no longer suited your purposes. As you reject all who are no longer any service to you. Your followers know that better than any, for you choose the best for death and bring them to Valhalla, until only the weak were left to populate the poor planet."

She caught him by the arm when he attempted to leave. His one good eye flashed at her. "Unhand me, daughter. You forget yourself. You were a goddess amongst the people, but you are nothing here. You make yourself the weakest of all in your refusal to do magic." His lips curled. "You make yourself less than a woman."

"You seek to insult me? According to your code, what can be less than a woman's status in this world of men?"

"Your sons are only alive because of your husband's magic, a deep magic stolen from another land."

"I know the land well. I knew the little girl who found it during the War."

"In an old professor's house? A weak god," scoffed Odin.

"He managed to come back to life, an achievement Baldr has yet to accomplish."

The weather remained the same, but ice seemed to cover her and pierce her very soul.

"My son," said Odin slowly, "is dead because of your husband's treachery. And he remains so because of that treachery."

"Then perhaps he ought to have died for selflessness instead of challenging the fate warned of in his dreams!"

She flew thirty feet back, a tree stopping her from going further away. It was all too familiar, and blood poured from her nose. "Do not do this! Not again!" She crouched on the ground, her arms over her head.

"Never challenge me again, foster daughter. Remember how I became the leader of the Assembly, and act accordingly. There will be no support for you. You will be an outcast with your husband and children. No love will overcome this."

He left, and Sigyn slowly rose. The coldness within refused to leave, even when the birds began to sing again.

The cold ate her from the inside out, and she rose slowly. Her eyes glowed a dull red. "It is by challenging the monster that it is released," she said slowly before taking a path back to the fortress.


	13. Family Time

It took three days to make her decision, and another two to physically push aside the tapestry and make her way down the dark steps. A dank smell rose from the depths. Holding her veil over her nose, Sigyn made her way down the narrow steps. Gradually, her eyes adjusted to the darkness, and her nose adjusted to the damp smell. "_Leoman_."

The torches in the wall flickered before gaining a sickly green glow. It reminded her too much of the story by the Christian writer from Oxford who later taught at Cambridge, the story where a Green Lady held a prince captive for ten years after killing his mother...

Loki's volumes were dusty, and she had to be careful, lest they fell apart in her hands. She found one and pulled it from the shelf and lay it on the table before her. Her heart pounded terribly, and she flipped open the cover quickly.

Nothing rose from the book but dust. No demons, no _draugar_—the zombie-like creatures which still gave her nightmares. They were her very first memory, the monsters destroying everything about her...

She smiled fondly for a moment, remembering how Frigg, and, later, Loki, would comfort her whenever the nightmares came. But this collection of cured animals' skins before, this was merely a book, a book with words that would change everything.

"Forgive me, my sons; forgive me, my husband," she whispered, before breathing deeply. She took the knife at her belt, cut the pad of her thumb, and squeezed a large drop of blood onto the illuminated page. "If you hear me, Wyrd Sisters Three, come and answer. I have desperate need of thee."

"_The weird sisters hand in hand, posters of the sea and land—_"

The wife of Lopt stood quietly as the three women materialized, their cloaks disturbing the dust upon the stone floor.

"_—Thus do go about about._"

"Thrice to mine."

"And thrice to thine."

"And thrice again to make up nine!"

They stopped their prancing and placed their hands together.

"Peace," said the eldest, the one in a brilliant shade of blue. "The charm's wound up."

They turned to Sigyn.

"Why have you called us from our world, Trickster's Wife?" said the youngest. Her scarlet hair matched her scarlet cloak. "We belong to the British Isles."

"I claim your aid through my husband's rights, when he was known as Lugh. You remember him well."

The three women hissed.

"That is a dark name to pronounce," said the middle one. Her black hair poured down her back, and her green raiment blended into the shadows. "His mastery of all arts made him too dangerous for even our assembly. You remember his quarrel with the Morrigan."

"None remember better than I," snapped Sigyn. "I called you here not to reminisce of ancient quarrels, but to answer mine own."

The two younger sisters began to bicker, but the eldest held up her hand. "Peace, sisters; let the nameless daughter speak. She broke many vows merely to call us here." Her eyes gleamed greedily in the green light. "Speak, Fosterling."

Sigyn took a deep breath. "I have fallen out with the All-Father, and wish for my wrongs to be righted. Restore to me what was once lost; change what the Fates stole from me, and heal the hurts which run deeper—" her face flushed at the sacrilege, "—deeper than the words written on the firestones on the Secret Hill."

The three sisters shuddered.

"You speak of the Deep Magic engraved on the sceptre of the Emperor-beyond-the-Sea," said the middle one. Her face was so pale as to seem completely green.

"Even we would not attempt a magic so deep," said the eldest.

"Then whom do I seek?" said Sigyn.

The face of the youngest softened. "Some things must heal on their own. You have been restored to your family—"

"Damn this family! The people on Earth complain of how dysfunctional their families are, yet they cannot begin to compare with the horrors of this Assembly of the Æsir!"

"Be careful, Fosterling," said the eldest, her eyes glittering. "Even we cannot see the details of where this quarrel ends."

The youngest, the kindest of the three, stepped up to Sigyn. She touched her forehead. "We bestow a blessing upon you, one that you might prosper and find peace. _Seek the good and banish the ill—_"

The other two placed their hands upon Sigyn, and the three chanted, "_And let the future the past fulfil_."

As Sigyn sank to the stone floor, the eldest removed her hand and pulled up her hood. "Let your prosperity and health be the All-Father's doom. Show that not all wrongs are righted in blood. And let a special blessing of peace descend upon you, the Nameless Daughter's right."

Footsteps echoed from above. The sisters joined hands and disappeared as spirits of the air.

Vali and Narvi hung from their father, shouting and laughing as he galloped into the apartment.

"Faster, Papa, faster!" cried Vali.

Narvi dropped onto the rug and rolled to a stop. Lightened of the extra child, Loki ran quickly about the room until their hair flew back from their faces.

Vali shrieked in excitement and held tightly about his father's neck. "Don't stop, Papa."

"Even the greatest of horses must rest," said Loki, dropping onto a cushioned bench.

Vali hopped off and hugged his father. "That was brilliant. May we do it again?"

"Absolutely," panted Loki, placing his hand on his son's head. "Maybe we can convince Sleipneir to give you a ride at some point."

He stiffened. The tapestry over the small door was disturbed. "Why don't both of you go play in the garden?"

"The swan just had her goslings," said Narvi, leaping to his feet. "I bet she'll let us play with the babies."

The two ran out, whirlwinds of energy.

Their father pulled himself to his feet and made his way down the narrow stairs. His heart felt as if it would burst from his chest.

The torches burned their sickly light, and he saw her standing in the middle of the room, a tome open before her. He stopped six paces from her, for he could smell the blood even from there. "What have you done?"

She turned about, and his eyes widened. She looked so incredibly enticing: her hair flowed richly about her shoulders, and her smoky eyes beckoned him. Her lush curves filled him with excitement, and it was only by accidently scraping his hand against the rough stone of the wall that he did not take her there. "Witchcraft suits you," he said in a choked voice. His blood pounded through every extremity of his body.

"You have made a bloody bride of me."

She tried to push past him, but he held an arm across the passage to block her. "What happened? You loathe any sort of sorcery. You will not even participate in _seidr._"

"Time changes us all. How else was I supposed to appease the men who desired me?"

She pushed once again, harder. In his struggle, he pushed her harder than he meant, and they slammed against the wall. "What happened? Do not claim this came from your years on the Midgard. Where is Sigyn, _my_ Sigyn? If I wanted a demon, I would have remained with Angrboda."

Sigyn's eyes flashed red momentarily, but she relaxed her head against the wall. "I confronted Odin, and it went as well as can be expected. He has only grown more childish in the passing years."

"Did he lay the blame at my feet?"

"Nothing as simple as that. Simply told, the boys and I were banished that you might suffer under his eye, safe from creating even more havoc than already done."

"And this made you desperate enough to take on all which you so violently foreswore?"

She looked sick suddenly, and ran up the stairs. He ran after her, his long legs taking the steps three at a time. "Sigyn!" He ran from room to room. "Sigyn, where are you?"

Unable to find his wife, Loki went out to the garden and watched his sons play. Sigyn was too much of a mother; she would never stray far from her children. He simply needed to outwait her.

Idunn had given him an apple earlier. He took it now from his belt and began to peel it. The sharp knife caught the mid-afternoon sunrays. Even the first bite of the apple's crisp flesh sent a sense of restoration through his body. His body would not regress so much as to return to childhood, but it would restore him to his prime.

Footsteps sounded on the path, and he glanced up quickly, nicking himself with the knife. "Since when did you take to returning so early from the hunt?" He sucked at the cut.

"You are one to speak," said Thor, wrapped in an old cloak. He leaned against the railing and watched his son surprise their cousins. The mother goose scolded them all severely before taking her goslings down to the lake with her.

The brothers laughed at the scene, but Loki glanced at Thor. The Thunderer looked weary.

Loki finished the apple and threw away the core. He mimicked his brother and leaned against the stone railing. "What is that you have sought me out for?"

"I face a dilemma."

"About your Jane Foster and Sif?"

"No, that is as it should be."

Loki tilted his head in question. "Your tendencies have always been rather maidenly. Would you be so dishonourable as to have both a wife and a concubine?"

He laughed at the glare Thor gave him. "No, you are still the same honourable man, despite your humbling experiences." He hopped up on the railing and tucked his feet across his thighs. "What is it that preys on your mind?"

"I have no wish to anger you..."

"Speak your mind, Asa-Thor."

"Your second wife, the Angrboda, what did she gain by killing your sons by Sigyn? Why did she take them captive? And how did she come to have so much power over Ragnarok?"

Loki finished cleaning the knife and slid it back into the sheath at his belt before answering. "These are questions for Father, but I will do my best." He looked up quickly when Narvi screamed, but it was only fun. "Fenrus is bound yet again, yes?"

"Aye," said Thor. His eyebrows rose upon noticing Sigyn hovering by the door.

His chin still lowered to his chest, Loki said, "The killing of a rival is an ancient custom. Angrboda saw Sigyn as a rival, which they were. I am sorry for it." His voice dropped nearly to a whisper, "As I am sorry to have betrayed her."

"Sigyn?"

"No, Angrboda." He sat back up and rested his elbows on his knees. "There was a time when I loved her and our children, in a twisted sort of love. And we were happy together for a while. Then came the binding of Fenruswulf and the Conversion of the Norsemen and the Icelanders..."

He barely heard Sigyn's soft steps move through the corridor, away from the conversation. "As for Angrboda's control over Ragnarok...I doubt she has any control over the exact situation but for the influence she carries over her son. The presence of Fenruswulf alone does not mean it is Ragnarok. Do you understand?"

"I believe so."

"What makes you ask these questions? Your concerns are typically more for battle."

Thor looked down over the manicured garden. "Things are happening again. We enjoyed centuries of peace; now war appears on every side. Questions must be asked _why_."

Loki's eyebrows rose a hair's breath. "You appear to have had a sudden growth spurt in your wisdom."

Thor smacked him on the head

Loki rubbed his neck. Thor still forgot his own strength at times. "Tell me: did you arrange for Sigyn to overhear my answers?"

"Whatever do you mean?" Thor laughed uneasily.

"I know she was here. Why?"

"It was the scheme of Mother and Freyja. You and Sigyn have barely spoken since your return; the time grows long and they begin to worry."

"I hurt her too deeply for immediate reconciliation. When we returned, I thought all would be well, only for her to find matters even I had forgotten of."

"Your sorceries."

"Aye. When the time is correct, we will be as one again. Until then, I must allow her to heal at her own rate. I have never seen anyone so angry as she."

Thor's brow knit. "There's something you are not telling me. What has happened to her?"

"Some secrets are not to be shared."

Some of Thor's tension released. "You two always were nearly as one. Even as children, she appeared to be little more than a second shadow. And in the early days of your marriage..."

"Do not worry, Brother. I have no intention of growing even more estranged from my wife. Rather the opposite, really."

Thor's sons, Modi and Magni, ran into the garden and spoke with their cousins.

Loki grinned. "Remember the mischief we got into at their ages?"

"Why do you speak in the past? It was not so long ago that you were wasting good wine by turning it into snakes."

"A childish prank, yet good for a laugh."

Magni skipped up to the porch. "Father, is it all right if we take Narvi and Vali to the lake? We will be back in time for dinner. We want to show them the castle we made. It should hold up to any giant!" He mimicked his father swinging Mjölnir, making the men laugh.

"I would say yes, but ask their father."

The youth turned to his uncle. "Pleeeeeeeeeeeease, Uncle Loki? I promise not to get them involved with any monsters."

"Bring home a good story without anyone dying, and I will believe you," said Loki. "Yes, they may go to the lake. If you see their mother and she has a problem, send her to speak with me."

"Thank you, sir!" Magni's skinny legs pounded the earth as he ran to join his brothers.

"It is good to have children again," said Loki. "I missed them."

Thor looked to his brother and placed a hand on his shoulder. "They missed you."

A great eagle soared through the sky, going speedily on some errand.

"Come, let us go fishing."

"No, no, no, no, no," said Loki. "I remember the last time we went fishing. Whenever you leave Asgard, some sort of mischief happens."

"Only because I leave with you." Thor laughed and pushed his brother down the steps to fetch nets and poles for fishing.

Bragi, the keeper of the poetry and bearer of the title of the First Poet, was musing over the latest tale of the Warriors Three, deciding how to turn it into a great song. He rounded a corner, only to run into someone. His arms reached out to steady himself and found his hands caught Sigyn, steadying them both. "My dear, what are you doing here?"

"My apologies," she said, bowing her head quickly. "I'm afraid I was lost in my thoughts. There is so very much to ponder."

Her words were too quick, and her ears were a dull red. Instead, he said, "I have turned the tale of your defeat of Angrboda and the revival of your sons by Loki into a great and wondrous tale. It will be sung at tonight's feast. Will that not be wonderful?"

He was surprised at the look of horror crossing her face. "No, do not do that, please. I beg of you, Bragi, if you have any compassion for my children and I, do not do this."

"What is it that terrifies you so, daughter?"

She pulled away, her eyes wide. "There is too much to explain." She bowed and began walking away carefully before breaking into a desperate run, her robes flying about her.

Bragi shook his head. Then he remembered. Although Sigyn still looked young, young enough that is, she looked weary and downtrodden. Had she eaten of the Apples yet? There was one who he could easily retrieve the answer from.

The wife of his youth, Idunn, was in her garden, quietly talking to a tree as she plucked brilliant fruits from its branches. Her dark hair, shot through with silver, had been braided and coiled about her head. Bragi crept up behind her and placed his hands over her eyes. "Riddle me this."

"Bragi, we were in the middle of an intense debate," she scolded, laughing as she gently moved his hands until his arms hung over her shoulders. "What is it that brings you here, husband?"

"There are many things which should bring me here, wife. But one question in particular."

"Do ask."

"Has Sigyn eaten of the apples of youth as of yet?"

She sat up straight, knocking his chin with the top of her head. "Not successfully. What day is it? The ninth? Then she must try again to eat of one." She kissed him gently on the cheek. "I wondered what I was forgetting. Thank you for reminding me."

"Anything for you, my love," he whispered, catching her mouth with his.

Idunn laughed. "Get along, you old rogue, and fetch the girl before she does something rash." She sobered. "I can only imagine what she might brew in such a weakened state."

"I hear and obey, my lady." Bragi kissed her hand before leaving quickly.

He found Sigyn not far from where he had left her. She watched the children playing a ball game, kicking it with their feet and batting it with their hands. Sometimes, someone especially bold would hit it with his or her head.

"Lady Sigyn," said the poet kindly.

Her eyes were red, but with weeping this time.

He held out his hand. "Please, join Idunn and myself for the afternoon. We have barely seen you since your return, and have missed you terribly. Bring your sons with you. I am sure they have need of their mother."

"They are out and about, happy to be home." She looked weary, more weary than Bragi every remembered seeing anyone. "I thank you for the invite."

He offered his arm. Together, they walked to the garden where Idunn waited. The large polished box where she kept the apples of youth, reserved for the Æsir, stood beside her.

"It is good to see you again," she said, embracing Sigyn.

"And you," said Sigyn. "You orchards and gardens look lovely."

"Bragi makes an excellent assistant," said Idunn, smiling at her husband. "Sometimes he becomes lost in his own head, but he has yet to destroy anything irreplaceable."

Sigyn smiled, but sat down readily when offered a seat.

"What troubles you, child?" said Idunn.

"I have done something truly unforgiveable."

"If you mean your confrontation with Odin, I say bravo," said Bragi. "It has been too long since someone called his actions into check."

"Hush, the ravens will hear and report," said Idunn, patting her husband's hand. "Odin is easily avoided, dear, and I have not seen your husband so happy since your marriage."

"Is he happy?"

The older couple smiled and nodded. Their hands were intertwined, and Sigyn's heart twisted at the sight of such a complete love that had grown old together.

With her free hand, Idunn reached into the box on the table and pulled out a shining apple. "I understand you are in need of this."

She opened the box and removed a shining apple.

Sigyn took the apple only to stare at it. "Such a curious fruit. The Midgardian culture has a strange aversion and fascination for the fruit."

"Eat it, and feel better," said Idunn. "Why do you hesitate?"

"They gave me one when I first returned, and it made me violently ill."

She closed her eyes and bit into the fruit. The fruit's taste was sweeter and more wholesome than anything she had tasted while in Midgard. The restoration began almost immediately.

When she had finished the apple, Idunn carefully wrapped the core to be planted later.

Bragi took Sigyn's hand. "You looked much better. There is a glow which was missing before."

"It is the glow which other perceive about all Æsir," said Idunn. "How do you feel, dear?"

"In need of rest. But better, lighter." She thanked them and left, her step firmer, more confident..

Bragi placed his hand on his wife's shoulder, and she took his hand. "I do not like this. It feels wrong."

"Something is horribly wrong in Asgard," said his wife. Her nails gently raked his skin.

A shadow covered the sky, there was a whirling of wings, and Bragi was thrust aside. Something struck him, and he collapsed against the soft grass. As the darkness closed about him, he could hear the screaming of Idunn and the beating of feathers.


End file.
